Forever is a really long time
by allie23o
Summary: I used to think I was the luckiest girl in the world, but little did I know my world was about to come crashing down around me. *Longer summary inside. ( I took over for Paullover23
1. Prolouge

**AN I** **adopt this story from PaulLover23. I'm taking over at the end of 14. The rest before that is her work. **

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Information you need to know beforehand:

Ages:

Sam and Emily - 22  
Paul and Jared - 19  
Kim and Bella - 18  
Jacob and Embry - 17

" ." - Speech

'(Italics)' - Wolf Pack's mind reading

(Italics) - Thoughts

* * *

Prologue

The ugly grey color of the sky did nothing to lift my mood. I was standing outside the hospital, gripping my jacket around my shivering body. I was cold, frozen, numb from all that had happened to me over the last few months.

I took a deep breath and did what I was taught to do all those years ago. I put my foot one after the other and entered the building. The overhead fan blew my hair in my eyes. I shook my head, concentrating on my breathing. There in the far corner of the clinical establishment sat a young woman who was busy tapping away furiously on the computer. Cautiously, I approached her like I would approach a wild animal. She didn't even look but, but I spoke anyway.

"Hi." I initiated my speech timidly. "I have an appointm-" But I was rudely disrupted.

"Name?" She snapped.

"Isabella Swan." I replied, the same cold tone she gave me.

"Have a seat. The nurse will come and get you shortly." She muttered, her eyes never leaving the computer screen.

I frowned and took a seat in the waiting room, just behind me. I lowered myself into the uncomfortable chair that was placed directly under a baby poster. I sat for a while, staring at a speck of pink paint on the linoleum floor, not thinking about anything particular. That was until the pink speck was covered by a familiar person stood in front of it.

My heart stopped. Who told him? Because it sure as hell wasn't me!

"What are you doing here, Bella?" His voice was strained but I snorted. He already knew why I was here.

"What are you doing here, Paul?" I countered. He slammed both his hands down on the armrest either side of me. I twitched and he lowered down to my level. The lady to my side made a disapproving tsk and Paul growled at her.

"I asked you first." He challenged. "Look at me," I refused to look at him, and shifted to the side. "Isabella!" He sneered. "Look. At. Me." He hissed under his breath. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. I don't want to look at him! I can't see you. I can't.

"Swan! I asked you to do something and I expect you to do it!" He bellowed.

I didn't feel obligated to do what I was told like I usually do, but nevertheless, I trailed my eyes from his white knuckles to his tense arms. Then my eyes travelled passed his stiff shoulders and settled at the pulse of his neck. Steady and strong. Just like we used to be. I stole myself for a moment and took a deep breath as my eyes travelled up his neck, past his lips, over his nose and settled on his hard, hateful eyes. His breathing hitched and he released a shaky breath.

I knew what he saw in my eyes. I had been seeing the same thing for the past while. He saw nothing. No love, no anger, no sadness. Just a lifeless shell.

"What are you doing here?" I asked again, a cold edge to my voice.

"I'm here to stop my imprint from aborting our baby." He whispered.

Imprint. Not girlfriend. Good.

I stared into his hazel eyes, eyes that were once not the bane of my existence.

"Leave." I muttered. His eyes glazed over as he fought the instinct to obey his imprint's orders. His whole body was now ramrod stiff.

"Isabella Swan." The dumpy, brunette nurse called my name. I placed my hand on his arm and his body relaxed. I took my other hand and pushed his arm off the armrest and stepped away from him.

"Please don't do this." He begged, but I ignored him. I walked to the nurse and gave her the faintest of smiles.

"Right this way." She said, pointing to a narrow, white corridor. I didn't turn around to see his state. I didn't need to, I wasn't interested. He was dead to me.

A short while later, I was lying on a hospital bed, legs spread and wearing a god awful hospital gown. Looking around the room, I saw various machines and instruments. The counter by the door had stacks of glove boxes piled, literally, to the ceiling. The sterile trolley and sonagraphy machine were parked by the bottom of the bed. The surgical lamp hung just above my slightly swollen tummy. In the corner of the room, at his computer, sat my doctor. He swivelled in his chair.

"Ready, Miss Swan?" He asked.

I stared at him blankly, numbly, and nodded.

**Slightly edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	2. Chapter 1

My teeth cracked through marble and released cold, poison tasting liquids into my mouth. She jerked her shoulder out of our grip and leaped onto a nearby tree.

Circling the conifer, I growled up at the disgusting redhead. Sam and Embry skidded to a halt, flanking me, viciously snapping at the red-eyed leech that perched on a branch like a canary.

Our breaths were ragged; a combination of adrenaline coursed through our veins and the tiring hours that we've been chasing this bitch. Not to mention the anger within the pack's conjoined minds. My lips drew back revealing perfectly sharp razor teeth and my hackles perked as she spat each word.

"You can't protect her forever!" She hissed.

_'Protect who?' _Embry growled.

I barked, _'Focus, Embry!'_

He crouched to a lunge and attacked forward as the leech turned to disappear into the thick canopy of the Canadian forest.

_'Stop!' _Our Alpha's voice vibrated through our linked minds. Embry took a step back from the border.

_'That is not our territory, back o-'_

I cut him off, _'That's the fourth time she's slipped through our teeth. Literally.' _I sneered. That leech had us chaser her all the way to the Canadian border three times already. It was really starting to piss me off. And why the hell does she keep coming back for more? Who is she trying to hunt?

_'She is no longer a threat to our people when she's out of our territory. We'll deal with her if she comes back.' _His voice held the undertone of an Alpha command, indicating that this conversation was over and not up for discussion. Sam turned towards La Push and bolted, the imprint pulling him to Emily.

_'Whipped.' _I muttered though my thoughts.

_'Careful.' _Sam warned.

_'Yeah, yeah.' _I chortled and we went back to La Push.

The pack knew my opinion on imprinting. To have your choice taken away from you isn't at all appealing. Being stuck with the same person for the rest of your life is a terrifying concept. I mean, what if my imprint was this ugly, fat chick that had a bad case of facial hair or nail biting? What was I supposed to do then?

_'Love her for who she is.' _Embry responded without a second thought.

I snorted, flashing images of my latest conquest through the pack's grouped minds. Image of me burying my balls deep into this hot pussy of a skinny blonde and she's riding my cock, sucking me off with her full lips wrapped around my shaft.

The virgin groaned.

_'I've never got a fucking chance with any of the women I've been with,' _He said.

I laughed. Between patrolling, school and working, I haven't gotten a lot of spare time. Any time I ever had was spent getting laid. I've had my fair share of women, hell, I'd been with Embry's share of women. I wasn't about to stop because of some voodoo magic shit. I didn't want to be tied down by one girl during my prime. Where the hell was the fun in that? What if I imprinted on the abstinent, preacher's daughter? Or some barely legal kid who had no idea where I put it in? And there was a lot to put _in_.

Embry's wolf huffed.

_'Something bothering you, pup?'_ I asked gruffly._N...no,' _He stuttered.

_'Spit it out,' _I pressed.

_'It's just that...I thought that the imprinter is supposed to be what the imprint needs.'_

_'Yeah, and?'_

_'Well, you keep thinking about yourself. But what will she need? You're supposed to know what you're imprint needs, right?' _

Sam joined in, _'Absolutely, but Paul here thinks he's above all that, don't you, Paul? Emily always said she wanted me to stay away from her, but that wasn't what she needed. I tried fighting it for her, but that never worked. The pull between us got stronger every blinking minute that I'm away from her. And then I...'_

The rest of the sentence went unsaid, but no unheard. We all knew what Sam had done, how he had scarred his mate. Sometimes we could hear his thoughts, and know that he could still feel his claws slicing her skin. The feel of her blood under his paws. Sam had never forgiven himself for what he had done to Emily. He never would.

Silence graced the pack's conjoined minds, nothing but the humming of the forest, our paws and breathing could be heard, until Jared phased in. I wondered why we hadn't heard him in a while, I guess he's about to tell us.

_'Guys, we have a problem,' _He began. _'It's Jake, he's injured.'_

_'What?!' _Embry's voice run painfully through the pack's mind.

I growled, _'Jesus, Embry!'_

'Quiet!'

The command rippled through our heads. _'Jared, what happened?'_

_'He tried to take on the nomad by himself. I got Harry to take a look at him. He's got a broken arm but it should be healed by tomorrow.'_

Sam snarled. _'The buy thinks he knows it all. I trust you to take care of it. Where is he now?'_

_'At home, sleeping it off. It wasn't his fault that I should've been paying more attention. Damn it! I knew I never should have let him patrol the eastern border alone.'_

Jared whined.

_'You should've known better but what is done, is done.'_

We were now approaching the line between Fork's and the reservation. Home was in sight and my bed was calling me. I was dying for a shower and to catch up on sleep.

'_Meet us at the Black residence in 10.' _Sam ordered Jared._ 'We'll check on Jake, maybe take him to Emily's if he's up for it.'_

I could see the little red house and garage in Jared's mind, he was already there. There was a shift and just like that the image was gone. Jared had phased out.

We had just passed the La Push border, it felt great having my paws pounding on familiar soil. I relished in the freedom running gave us. But as always, the freedom was closely followed by the weight of the responsibility that phasing brought. Morphing into a giant vampire killing wolf had its advantages. The growth spurt was one but the pain it caused was a down fall. Never getting cold was useful but never being about to feel cool was frustrating. The strength the change gave us was awesome, but never being able to fully let go around humans was disappointing. People assuming you were part of some steroid pumping cult is never an upside. But that did keep them at a healthy distance for the pack though, which was great.

Sam reduced his speed, Embry and I followed. Jared was waiting for us just shy of the tree line clad in his usual cut-off's and wearing the only sneakers he had left. We had ripped our clothes and shoes trying to get a hang of our anger and phasing. Eventually, we got the hint and stopped wearing shit that wasn't necessary. Good think we never got cold.

We phased back and we didn't bother trying to hide our _parts_. There's no point, we'd seen it all before, still we had the decency of turning away from our pack brothers to get dressed. I crouched down and untied the bungee cord from around my ankle, which secured my clothes to me when in wolf form. I unrolled my cut-offs and slipped them on then I zipped the fly and snapped my button secure, before turning to talk to Jared.

Jared nodded in acknowledgment, slapping me on the back, "Better luck next time," He sniggered. Bastard thought this shit was funny.

"Shut the fuck up, I'd like to see you do any better. Oh wait! You tried but couldn't match up with my awesomeness, could you?" I retorted. He hadn't even come within a foot of the leech when she decided to grace us with her presence last week. If he wasn't my best friend, then I would have beaten his ass.

"Let's go!" Sam interrupted us as he passed by. We broke through the line in a classic V formation, instinctively. Embry and Jared announced our arrival by shouting the wolf call.

Odd thing was, there, to the side of the red house was Billy's old red truck that he had given to the leech lover...Ah, the leech lover had finally lost the last sliver of her dignity and paid Jake a visit. I smirked then snickered, Jared eyed me suspiciously. Before I could bite his head off, the porch door was abused by a furious banging. I snapped my head to see around and noticed the small figure of Bella Swan, storming down the steps and hurtling towards the pack.

_Stupid little girl, _I thought. _Give me a reason to rip you apart, just one. _I couldn't stand her for using Jake to put herself back together after her precious leech left.

"What did you do to him?" Her voice run out as she stepped in front of our Alpha and jabbed him with her feeble little hand. Her brows furrowed in fury.

"Hey, watch it little girl. " Jared and I warned in unison.

"Easy," Sam stuck his arm out at us, signalling us to keep cool.

She shrunk back. _That's right, be afraid._

"He didn't want this!" She declared. _No shit. _Nobody wanted this.

"What _did_ we do? What did he do? What did he tell you?" My body tensed. Jake had no business telling the leech lover our tribe secrets. My breathing became uneven and anger rose from my core and I could feel it reaching every nerve. Sam grabbed my arm and push me back roughly.

"Both of you, calm down!" Sam's placid voice brought back my restraint. But I could still feel little tremors under my skin. My breathing evened out but was still laboured from the fighting phase. The little girl glances at Jared and turned her pretty little head back to me. I could only imagine what his expression portrayed, no doubt that it woudl be anger. I stared at her full bottom lip as she spoke.

"He said nothing. He said nothing because he's scared of you." She informed us. _For real? About fucking time, the boy was fearless. _The notion was so ridiculous that Jared and I started cackling. I trailed my eyes back to her and I was about to tell her how wrong she was. But my universe shifted, every little thread that had tied me to this world broke. Instead, steel cables wrapped around my heart and I felt like my torso and straight towards her.

_Oh shit_. I imprinted.

The next thing I see is Jared's panicked face. _Huh? _I was too busy lost in her brown, doe eyes when I noticed her tiny little hand raise to slap me. _She slapped me? _My fucking imprint just slapped me. She might as well had taken a knife and stabbed my heart and twisted it. That shit hurt. Ye again, I was fighting to remain calm. Sam placed his hand on my shoulder and pushed me further back.

"Paul, don't." He said, but I was way past the point of no return. My own imprint hated me.

"Too late now."

"Too late now." Jared's voice held amusement, as he backed up.

Sam raised his hand towards her, "Bella, get back." My shoulders heaved from my fizzling resolve. I could feel the tremors return to full out shakes. Spit flew from my mouth as she backed up. She looked at my feet and then her eyes shot right up to my face. She looked terrified, this only fuelled my anger. _She hated me and she was scared of me! Great going Paul! _I was her imprint she wasn't supposed to be afraid of me. _Shit I had really fucked up. _And just like that, I couched forward and phased. Fur exploded from my skin, sharp teeth displayed through a snarl and claws digging into the dirt. I stepped forward and she countered my advance by stepping back. I lowered my head to look less intimidating but she turned and ran for the house.

Her breathing developed to gasps as she dashed towards the safety of Jake's house. The baby alpha was already on the porch.

"Bella!" He shouted and jumped over the railing and over the stream. _What the fuck happened to the broken arm?_

"Run Jake, run!" She shouted while running towards him and away from me. _Fuck that shit. _She was not choosing him over me, ever. I growled, stalking towards my brother. He was getting too close for comfort. I could see his muscles shaking, and I knew he was about to phase._ Careful Black_.

Just as he reached her, she fell at his feet. _Wow, she really was clumsy!_ Jake jumped as Bella impacted the ground, phasing in mid-air.

_'You have to go through me first!' _He growled ferociously

_'Step aside, Black.' I seethed. 'She's my imprint.' _

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	3. Chapter 2

_'Impossible.' _Another vicious growl ricocheted through the clearing.

_'Really, well this is going to be fun.' _My wolf smirked. I replayed what had just happened moments before he interrupted. I could feel Jake's sadness seep into my mind. The wind picked up and blew the scent that was resembled and orange blossom, but was also different. _Bella. _He barked again and I growled back. There was another scent accompanying hers, but I couldn't figure out why who. I took a step forward to get a clear view, but that was obviously a mistake.

_'No.' _Jake sprung towards me, aiming for my neck. He latched on and I twisted out of his jaw. His teeth sunk into my other side. _Shit. _He lost his footing and we rolled backwards. I pushed my hind legs up and launched him off of me. I vaulted back up. His neck was bare and I took my chance. He wriggled and swiped his paw against my cheek. I turned my head back to the brown wolf and charged. He pushed me away, my claws digging into the dirt to stop my wolf from tumbling backwards. We circled each other.

_'You can't have her!' _He declared.

_'I don't want her!' _I retorted.

He snarled. _'What, is she not good enough for you?'_

'Absolutely.'

'Wrong answer, asshole.'

He shot forward.

Jaws snapping, trying to get the upper hand. I dodged his advance but he managed to rip into my neck. I whimpered. I wrench out of his hold and snapped at him. We stumbled around trying to get leverage. I fell forward. Jake threw his head up and butted me backwards. I rocked. He bit into my shoulder, raised his paw and brought it down hard onto my back, forcing me to the ground. I twist and swatted his paw away. He fell on top of me. I hurled him away with my legs and scrambled to get up.

He charged at me and we fell into Billy's rowing boat. Splinters flew in all directions, rolling into the forest I had just come from. We kept nipping and clawing at each other. Tumbling to a stop, we both jumped up and away.

_'You don't deserve her!' _He snapped.

_'Yeah, you're right, I don't. I deserve better than a leeches' sloppy seconds.' _I muttered. Jake's lip quivered.

Jake dug his back paws into the soil ready to leap forward but then there was a shift.

_'Stop,'_ Came the command. Jake's wolf shuddered as he tried to fight the order.

I smirked. '_Who's your daddy now, pup.'_

'_Paul, enough. Does someone want to tell me what the fuck just happened back there? Haven't I told you both time and time again to reign in the wolf around humans?_' He roared._ 'Did anything I teach you besides how to fight settle into your dumb little brains.?!' _He bellowed, pissed off.

Jake and I relaxed our stance and backed away from our Alpha.

_'You could have hurt her._' Jake snapped his head round to me and scowled.

'_I wasn't the only one to phase close to her.'_ I huffed.

'_Oh please, she was miles away from me!'_ Jake retorted.

'_Shut up!'_ Our Alpha's voice firm._ 'Both of you could have hurt her. Did my mistake teach you nothing?' _We hung our heads in shame. He was right. I could have hurt her. I shouldn't have phased so closed to her. I knew I had better control than what I had just shown. It hadn't even been minutes and already the imprint was taking over my life.

'_Stupid imprint.' _I sighed.

'_Imprint? You imprinted?'_ He asked confused.

'_On Bella! He imprinted on my Bella!' _Jake whined.

'_Your Bella? Last time I checked, you weren't her boyfriend and you hadn't imprinted on her. So how in the fuck is she – you know what, doesn't matter. You can have her, I don't want-.'_

'_Paul,'_ My Alpha cut me off. _'The spirit has chosen her for you. She is meant for you. You can't fight this. It's meant to be.'_

_'The fuck I can fight this shit!'_ I barked. _'Watch me'._ I challenged. Jake let out an approving grunt.

'_I am not about to sit back and watch a member of my pack get hurt. You will not hurt her.'_ Sam announced.

I snorted. _'I can't have an imprint. I don't know the first thing about this shit.'_ I voiced. How was I supposed to look after a broken girl when I was such a fuck up myself? I wasn't cut out for relationships and crap.

'_Tell me about it.'_ Jake sneered.

'_Shut it, pup.'_ I glowered.

'_Don't think I've forgotten about you. How did Bella find out about the pack?_' Sam questioned.

I chuckled. '_Here we go.'_

'_I didn't tell her anything I swear, well…at least not after I phased. I just pushed her in the right direction, is all.'_ He shrugged and carried on. _'She was down on First beach last year, surfing, I told her about our ancestors and the cold ones. To be honest I never thought she'd figure it out this quickly.'_ He stated proudly.

Sam was silent.

_'Double patrols for the both of you._' He cemented the punishment with a nod.

'_What?!'_ Jake and I squealed, _'But-!_'

_'Together.'_ He responded. That shut us up.

_'And Paul, you can try to fight the imprint as long as your wolf is on its game.'_ He paused. _'If your wolf becomes unsettled, you are to immediately go to her and work it through.'_ The timbre in his voice weighted heavily down on my wolf. My nose touching the ground from the severity of the order.

Sam trotted off.

'_Embry and Jared are on their way to Emily's with Bella. I expect you to behave yourselves.' _Sam picked up his speed and ran towards Emily's, leaving me with the Jake.

Awkward silence cast throughout the pack mind. I didn't say anything; he wouldn't even look at me. '_Jake… I-I'm sorry.' _I started.

_'Like hell you are.'_ He scoffed. And bolted towards Em's, I followed at a leisurely pace, not in any rush.

I wasn't happy with imprinting and it made it worse that I had imprinted on Jake's Bella. He had been in love with her since they were kids. And it made me feel like a right dick that I had taken away any chance of them being together. Again, there was that distinctive shift and my brothers phased out. I didn't want to fight with him, we were meant to be a unit. The only way this could work out was to let him get all opportunities to win her over. He had kept reminding us that he was close to getting Bella to love him more than a friend and I wasn't about to ruin his chances just because I had imprinted on her. He was way better for her than I could ever be and he knew that.

_She's Jake's Bella, _I said to myself. No one was in wolf form anymore, so I had this wide open, vacant space in my mind to let my thoughts wander.

My wolf jostled. _**Ours, not his. Ours. **_He declared.

_Whoa_. He'd never spoken so clearly to me and with such conviction, it caught me off guard.

_If he wants her, I'm not going to stop him from having her._

_**Yes you will, you just don't know it yet,**_He sneered.

I was now approaching Em's and I could hear the mindless pack chatter going on in her kitchen. Apparently, there was a bet going on between Jared and Embry, which Embry had won. I emerged from the forest directly opposite the back door which was slightly a jar. And yet again I could smell orange blossom and same the phantom whiff accompanying it. I couldn't place the scent but it was making me uneasy.

_**Fool. **_The wolf sneered.

_What did I do now? _I enquired.

_**It's her blood. **_He growled. **_Doesn't even know his own mates blood..._**My own wolf was mocking me!_She's not my mate! _I rumbled and pulled a pair of Sam's shorts hanging on the washing line off. I snagged them between my teeth and jogged off past the tree line to phase back.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	4. Chapter 3

**(Bella's POV)**

_What had just happened? _I looked past the remnants of Billy's boat into the trail that the wolves had stumbled into. I couldn't think, couldn't blink and I was unwillingly feeling faint. I don't think I was even breathing until I heard Sam's gruff voice tell the two strangers to take me to Emily's.

"Guess the wolf's out the bag." I heard a familiar voice utter. But when I looked up to see the two russet figures running over to me, I couldn't recognise either of them.

The taller man was slender and had glistening russet brown skin. I noticed that his long rounded muscles were less pronounced than the other person's. His cropped black hair fell haphazardly into his deep brown eyes, eyes that I had seen before. He had a thin upper lip but his lower lip more than compensated. Right underneath his luscious sweetheart lips was a breathtakingly charming dimple. The other person was the same height as the one I had slapped. He had nice rounded muscles, encased in red-brown skin. He had the same brown eyes as the taller one and cropped brown hair. His lips perfectly balanced in fullness set above a strong jawline.

I tried to push myself away from them as they got closer, but there was a sharp pain shooting up my arm. _Damn it._ I winced. When I looked down at the source of the pain, all I could see was blood covering my hand and jacket sleeve.

"Jesus Christ, Bella. Out of the entire reservation, you fell on the only square inch that had glass." The leaner man said. I looked up at him, cocked my head to the side and glanced back down at my hand. _I know your voice._ I had always hated blood but even more so now than ever; my blood was what had compelled Edward and his family to leave. The man crouched down next to me.

"Hey," His voice low as the back of his hand caressed my cheek. I flinched away from the electrifying heat.

"Look at me," he pleaded softly. I raised my teary eyes to look at his face. His eyes were so familiar but I couldn't place them. And then I remembered a few months ago I had come face to face with the same soft, kind eyes.

"Embry...?" I whispered.

His lips quirked up into a lopsided grin, "Hi." He breathed.

"Let's get you cleaned up." He snaked one hand around my arm and the other placed on the small of my back. "Come on up." He chuckled, helping me up and then started leading me towards Jake's house. My knees felt weak as I took step after step towards the red house.

_What had just happened?_ I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Yeah, I had figured out that the story Jacob had told me last year was true; but I hadn't contemplated actually seeing its physical manifestation so soon. Never mind after I had slapped a stranger. _I had slapped a stranger_. What the fuck was wrong with me. _I had slapped a stranger who turned into a gigantic wolf. _Yup, I had lost my inhibitions. I kept my gaze on the ground to stop myself from losing my footing and falling again. I was thankful that Embry still had a supportive hand place firmly on my back.

"Em, hurry up, I'm hungry!" The other man whined. Embry turned towards the voice and removed his hand from my back and I lost his support. Next thing I knew, the ground was getting closer and I gasped. Just before I impacted the floor for a second time today, two warm hands wrapped securely around my waist and stopped my descent.

"You alright there?" He asked turning me around to face him. I nodded meekly.

"I'm Jared, by the way." I gave him a small smile in acknowledgment.

Jared squinted his eyes; I looked down at the ground. "Hey, Embry! Ten bucks says she hurls." He said, take my head in his hand and pulling it up to study my face closely.

"What are you talking about?" Embry asked annoyed, and pushed Jared out of the way.

"Bells, hey," He implored. Taking my head in his hands, just as Jared had done.

"You're looking a little green there…" There was a pause. I _was _feeling slightly nauseous. It was a combination of factors really. The blood was definitely at the top of the list of things that were making me nauseous. And the fight had shaken me up a little too. I shrunk away from Embry. _Was he a wolf too? He might be, after all he is in Sam's gang._

"C'mon Bella, it's me Embry. The same guy you met in Jake's garage. Still me, but now I'm the hottest man alive." He winked. Jared choked out a giggle before he bent over with laughter.

"Okay maybe not the hottest, but I'm up there!" He smirked. My shoes had all of a sudden become the most interesting items of clothing in the world. Something I noticed the boys were lacking. He was pretty hot I'll admit.

"Let's take care of your hand, shall we?" Embry asked shyly. I opted for nodding my head because I didn't trust my voice. He took my uninjured hand and led me up the back porch and into the house. Jared followed, tears streaming down his face.

"Billy?" Embry called.

"Yeah, in here." He bellowed from the living room. He was sitting in his wheelchair in front of the TV, watching a game.

"You have a first aid kit kicking about? Bella's cut her hand!"

"Yeah. In the cupboard under the sink, in the bathroom. Are you okay Bella?" Billy asked concerned.

My voice cracked, "Fine." I replied with a nod, hiding the hand from him. Embry led me down the narrow hall towards the small bathroom. There wasn't enough space in there for me, let alone me and him together. We stopped at the door of the bathroom; I tugged on his hand and said "I can do it myself." Giving him every opportunity to back out of helping me.

I could hear Jared asking Billy if he had anything to eat, but I didn't catch his reply because Embry had spoken over Billy.

"How exactly do you plan on tackling that mess with one hand, huh?" I didn't have an answer. He shook his head and laughed "Thought so."

Embry let go of my hand and side stepped into the bathroom. He bent down and took out a green box from the cupboard and placed it on the counter. Spinning around, he beckoned me into the bathroom with a come hither motion of his index finger. I eyed him suspiciously; he chuckled, but I stepped forward anyway. As soon as I was in the bathroom he patted the counter were the box lay. I looked at him confused, not understanding what he was communicating. All confusion was cleared though, when he took me by the waist, pulled me towards him, and then lifted me up and onto the counter. I was too shocked to speak so I just stared wide-eyed.

"What?" he asked. _What?! You just manhandled me! That's what!_

I shook my head. He smiled at me, helping me out the jacket. He rolled up a t-shirt sleeve and stepped between my legs. _Maybe I should've sat cross-legged on the counter._

"Let's see what we've got here," He spoke. Embry reached over to the sink I was sitting beside and turned on the tap. He asked me how I was feeling but I wasn't able to answer, so I just nodded. Embry swiped his finger through the stream of water coming from the tap and shook his head. He adjusted the temperature.

He spoke again, "Give me something more to work with here, Bells. I nod isn't gonna cut it." He stated.

"I'm fine, just a lot to take in at once." I stated.

"Understandable, so you have any questions about what happened just?" He asked, looking up at me through his long lashes. I shook my head no.

"Nothing at all?" He encouraged. "Not even why Paul just turned into a wolf when you slapped him? Are you sure?" _Paul? Was that his name?_

"Well actually…How did you first, you know… turn into wolves?" I whispered.

Embry leaned in closer to me and asked, "Why are you whispering?" I shrugged. He laughed wholeheartedly. _Glad someone was finding this situation funny_. He took my hand and pushed it under the harm water "think I'll let Billy tell you". I nodded my head and sighed, it felt good.

"That nice?" he asked. "Mhm." Was my response and I closed my eyes.

He dried my hand with the towel hanging on the hook by the door. Turning it over, he inspected the top and bottom of my hand looking for any wound. He made a tsking noise, I opened my eyes to see what he was looking at. But I couldn't see anything. No blood flow or pieces of glass embed in my hand. _Odd, _I thought.

"Ahh, there it is." Embry declared. I couldn't see anything. But on closer inspection, on the junction where my pinkie met my palm was a small slit.

"That's all?" I asked relieved.

"Looks like it." Embry responded. _Whew! _I thought it was gonna be a big gaping hole with the amount of blood was covering my right hand. Hence why I had my eyes closed. I didn't want Embry to lose his bet with Jared.

Em rummaged through the box and pulled out a mepore dressing and some Dettol. First he diluted the antiseptic and applied it gently to my hand with a cotton ball; pausing now and again to blow onto the stinging cut. And finally he coved the wound with the dressing.

"All done." He said, while washing his hands. He tidied the box away and helped me off the counter; steadying me before letting go of my hips. I backed out of the bathroom and turned to walk down the hall towards a yelling Billy and sad looking Jared.

Billy turned and gave me a smile, "You okay?"

"Good, I'm fine." I reassured him.


	5. Chapter 4

**BPOV**

An amused looking Embry walked past me and threw himself down on the couch, next to Jared.

"Is everything okay?" I asked concerned, looking between Jared and Billy. They didn't reply, but Embry did.

"Yeah Bells, everything's peachy. Jared just doesn't know when to stop talking." Embry said, nudging Jared with his elbow. I frowned, _what was he on about?_

"I'd wipe that smug look of my face if I were you, boy." Billy interjected. "What were you doing, Embry, when all this was going on? Standing watching like he was, I bet." Billy said, nodding at Jared. "What if something happened to Bella, huh? What would I tell Charlie? The man's my best friend. How could I tell him his baby got mauled to death by a wild animal in my back yard? What was that moron thinking, phasing so close to her?" He shouted at seemingly quiet boys.

Jared squeaked "Sam-"

"I don't want to hear it!" Billy yelled, manoeuvring his wheelchair to face me. _Wow, he was pissed._

"Are you okay Bella?" He extended his arm towards me, taking my injured hand in his.

"I'm fine, really, Billy… And Paul didn't do this." I said, pointing to the bandage. "That was all me, you know how clumsy I am.," I waved my other hand trying to brush it off.

Billy spun his head towards the boys and commanded, "Someone better get off their ass and make her some tea now!" Embry looked at Jared.

"That would be you." He said. Jared made a huffing noise and reluctantly peeled himself of the couch and made his way over to the kitchen.

"Have a seat Bella, I'm sure you have a lot of questions" he supplied guiding me towards Jared's stop on the couch. "I guess I'll start from the beginning..." He commented rubbing the back of his head.

Billy explained everything to Bella, the legends and how all of it were true and he talked a little bit about Sam and Emily, as well. He talked about vampires and how werewolves will never get along properly because of the treaty.

"So you know about the-" I was cut off.

"Yes, we know about the Cullen's." He said, looking at me disappointingly. I averted my eyes away from his and into the cup of sweet tea in my lap.

"But they're nice people…" I started to defend, but the growls in the room interrupted my argument.

"They aren't people. They're _vampires_, Bella." Embry snarled, I shrunk further into the couch. "They're monsters, the undead." He bellowed. "They aren't natural."

_Hypocrite._

"So are you." I muttered under my breath.

"Yeah, we are. But only because of them. Didn't you here what Billy just said? We're shifters because of those_ things_ that you love so much!" He roared.

_How did he even hear me?_

"They would never hurt anybody!" I argued.

"You think they've always been so tamed?" My eyes shot up to meet Jared's face. _What? _"You think they've always had this much restraint? You're naïve if you think that's true." He mocked. "Bella, do you have any idea how hard it was to control our anger when we first phased? How difficult it was to reign in our wolves and to get a handle on phasing?" He questioned. "Take it from me; it's impossible to never loss focus on such a primal, basic instinct" he continued. "I guarantee it was exactly the same for your Cullens. Their need for blood is just as primal and just as basic, if not more so than phasing." He threw his hands up in the air. "Bella, please tell me you don't actually believe they've_ never_ hurt anyone?" He said shaking his head.

My eyes dropped to my lap were I had been wringing my hands forcefully. _He was right, why had I never thought about it?_

"They've never hurt anyone, since I've known them." I whispered.

"They wouldn't dare violate the treaty." Embry piped up. "Not unless they have a death wish." I nodded my head. I could see it was clearly useless trying to defend the Cullens to wolves. _Them being mortal enemies and all_.

Embry took the mug from where I had placed it on the coffee table and placed it on the counter in the kitchen. "I think we should get to Emily's now." He suggested.

"Yes! Finally. Thought I was going to starve to death!" Jared exclaimed, rushing out the door.

I forced myself into a standing position and made my way over to Billy. I bent down to give him a hug.

"I'm sorry." I told him, turned and walked out the door following Embry. _I was the reason the Cullens stayed. The Cullens staying meant the boys phased. The boys were stuck in La Push because they had phased. It was all my fault. All of it._

I leaned against my truck. _What had I done?_

"Bella give me the keys, I'm driving." Embry instructed. I willingly gave him the keys, besides, I was in no state to drive. He slid in behind the wheel and I made my way over to the passenger side slowly.

"Hurry it up Bella, the pancakes won't eat themselves." Jared cried from the bed of my truck. I laughed at his immaturity and climbed into the cab. As soon he heard the belt click, Em was speeding out the driveway.

It wasn't long before we were pulling up in front of a charming house, snuggled into a cluster of conifers. There were yellow flowers growing in buckets outside the door. It looked welcoming. The driver's door slamming shut had snapped something inside me. I remembered. _What happened to Jake and Paul?_

I rolled down the window. "Hey, I think we should go back and see if Jacob's okay." _Why weren't they concerned?_

Jared and Embry stopped walking; Jared turned his head partially to me. "I hope Paul sinks some teeth into him, serves him right." He defended.

"No way, Jacob's a natural" Embry jumped down the step. "Did you see him phase on the fly. I've got 5 that says Paul doesn't touch him" he stated confidently.

Embry must've noticed I wasn't following them. They both spun around.

"Come on in Bella, we don't bite." Embry reassured me, with amusement. _Yeah right. _I was about to step into a strangers house with two shifters. That shift into werewolves!

"Speak for yourself." Jared said, turning to ascend the steps leading to the front door. I bit the inside of my cheek and worked up the courage to open the door. _Embry's here, I know him. He's Jake's friend. _I took in a deep breath and opened the door.

When I reached Embry he stopped me. "Oh hey, about Emily, Sam's fiancée. Don't stare. It bugs Sam..." And walked off. _That's it! Nothing more. No why I shouldn't stare? Give a girl some warning Embry, what shouldn't I stare at?_

"Why would I stare?" I called after his retreating form.

I cautiously made my way up the stairs and peered into the house. There standing, leaning against the counter was a tall slender woman asking the boys if they were hungry. There was nothing to stare at here, except her thick luscious hair and nice ass. Her melodic voice was sweet and her laugh was lovely. _What was Embry talking about?_ I trailed my eyes from her feet to her face; there was nothing wrong with her. She was the most attractive woman I had ever seen.

But then she turned towards me. I could see all of her face. See the three scars running down the side, towards her neck which disappeared behind her shirt. But oddly she was still insanely beautiful to me. _And now I was staring!_

"Who's this?" She inquired. I averted my eyes to the boys sitting at the table with huge stacks of honey smothered pancakes.

"Bella Swan, who else?" Jared provided sarcastically.

"Ahh, so, you're the vampire girl." _Ha, apparently._

I looked everywhere except at her. "So, you're the wolf girl." I countered, stepping into the house.

She smiled. _Even her smile was to die for._ "Guess so," She said, picking up the tray of pancakes and placing them on the table "well…engaged to one."

Jared's hand armed with a fork shot out, she grabbed it. "Save some for you brothers…and ladies first!" She shook their shoulders with her tiny hands. "Pancakes?" She offered me.

"Sure." I stepped forward and pulled out a chair. I picked up the fork lying next to the plate and gripped it but the pain shoot up my arm again. "Damn it!" I whispered.

"Here Bells, let me." Embry spoke, already slapping two pancakes on my plate.

"It's okay, my other hand still works." I lifted my hand to show him.

"Who are you trying to convince? You're a messy enough eater with your right hand" He laughed. "There's no way you can eat with the other hand and survive without getting honey on yourself…or others for the matter!" He mocked, chuckling. I rolled my eyes. _Wait how did he know? He'd never seen me eat._

"What happened, Bella?" Emily queried anxiously.

"Oh, nothing. I just fell." I said, shaking my head. She nodded.

"Leave it to Jake to find a way around Sam's gag order." She stated, turning towards the cooker and turning on the gas under a skillet.

"Um, he didn't say anything to me." I watched as Embry switched his seat so he was sitting next to me. He reached over the table and snatched the honey sitting next to Jared's plate and smothered my pancakes with it from a height.

"It's a wolf thing." He started "Alpha's orders get obeyed, whether we want to or not." His eyebrow shot up into his hairline. "Oh and check it out, we can hear each other's thoughts." _Is that how he knew?_ He cut off a bit of pancake and raised the fork to my mouth. I opened my mouth and bit the cake into my mouth.

"Will you shut up? These are our secrets!" Jared reprimanded. "Damn it! This chick runs with vampires" He exclaimed.

I swallowed the sweet cake. "You can't really run with vampires." Emily made a mocking noise and Embry rewarded me with another piece of delicious pancake. "Because they're fast." I added.

"Yeah…well we're faster!" He defied. "Freaked out yet?" He hoped.

I shrugged, "You're not the first monsters I've met." I said, matter-of-factly. Looking at Embry, I pleaded with my eyes for him to feed me, he chuckled.

He lifted the fork to my open mouth. I closed my eyes waiting for the scrumptious treat, but it never came. I snapped my eyes open to look at him. He was gazing past my head and then it was evident why.

"Jake's right, you're good with weird." Said a gruff voice. I turned around in my chair to see a tall man scuffing his shoes on the mat at the door. He was exuding authority. _Guess he's Sam, the alpha?_

His eyes zoned in on Emily and he rushed towards her. "Hey." He cooed, extending his arms towards her. Sam grasped her hips, turned and pulled her towards him. He bent down so he was at eye level with Emily and kissed her sweetly on the lips. Pulling back he looked into her eyes and started placing kisses all over her face and hair. She giggled and wrapped her arms around Sam's waist and settled her head on his chest.

Embry cleared his throat. _Right…staring was rude._ He placed another piece into my mouth. A moment later, Jacob barged through the door. He was dressed in different clothes than earlier today. Jake made a bee line for me; he pulled out my chaired in knelt down in front of me.

"You okay?" He asked, tucking a strand of my loose hair behind my ear. I nodded and dropped my eyes onto my lap, chewing frantically. His eyes taking inventory.

"Bella, what happened to your hand?" He demanded, roughly taken it in his and inspecting it closely.

I timidly replied, "Nothing, cut it when I fell." I shrugged. "Embry helped me clean it." I reassured him.

"Thanks Em," Jake said, turning to Embry and clapped him on the back as a sign of appreciation.

"No problem." He said, handing the fork to Jake. _No, what if Jake didn't know to feed me? I wanted more pancakes. _Shit the food was turning into a whiny wee sod. _It was turning me in to Jared. _I shuddered.

"Cold," Jake asked, but before I could reply he had scooped me up, sat down on my chair and deposited me in his lap. _Umm, Jake. Slightly inappropriate! But he was warm and I _was_ cold._

He scooted the chair in towards the table and I watched as he took a bit of my pancake and ate it! _Mine._

"Something you need?" He asked looking at me with amusement.

"Yeah, I need you to tell me how Embry knows how I eat. How he can hear me, even when I mumble. Why the hell are you so warm!?" I wasn't finished. "And stop eating my delicious pancakes. They're mine, feed _me_. Not yourself!"

Jacob looked at me like I had just grown two heads. There was a pause. "What?" I asked innocently and looked around the room. No one said anything and then they all burst out laughing. No warning, no nothing. They all just broke out in hysterics. _Are they crazy?_ I eyed them suspiciously.

"Oh, I'm sorry Bells." Jake choked out, wiping the tears away from his cheek. "Here," He said, lift the fork for me this time. _That's better_. I chewed my pancake and rested my head on his shoulder.

"As for everything else, it's a wolf thing." He stated proudly.

"Sure, sure. Just keep feeding me pancakes." I ordered.

"Hey, where's Paul?" Jared asked. Jake stiffened. I lifted my head off his shoulder and looked up at his face. Following his line of sight I found that he was looking at an equally rigid Sam. _That's odd._

"I don't know. Probably nursing his wou-" Jacob spat.

"Pay up!" Embry shouted, a smug look gracing his face. Jared shook his head and pulled out the money from his back pocket.

I looked around the room and saw something I hadn't seen before. The scene in front of me projected love from Sam and Emily. Of friendship from Embry and Jake and of family from all of them. I was awed by how comfortable they felt around each other, the confidence they seemed to have with each other. It was something to bottle and cherish forever. _Would I ever have that? Someone how'll love me like Sam did Emily. Or family that cared about me. I already had the friendship and I was never letting it go._

I looked at Jake laughing features. So carefree, so relaxed. But I wasn't feeling the same.

I felt a chill climb up my spine. There was this buzzing sound in the distance. Something pulling me backwards. A tingling sensation raked through my being, making me shudder slightly. I released a shaky breath and closed my eyes trying to fight this unknown pull. But my focus was shattered when a coarse voice startled me.

"The leech lover's still here, I see." It spat viciously. I didn't like it, but my body felt the need to see who spat such a nasty comment about me.

I turned around in Jake's lap to see a man that wasn't as tall as Embry standing in the back door to the house. He was dressed in cut-off's riding dangerously low on the hips. He was leaning against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest, defensively. His long muscles bulged outwards thanks to the manner of his stance; he was tense like he was fighting something. His abs had definitely been worshipped by girls across the state. His pronounced V would've had the preacher's daughter lusting after him. I trailed my eyes to his face. His lips set in a smirk, eyes hazel with little flecks of gold sprinkled throughout his irises penetrated deep into my soul.

My breathing hitched, I didn't like this at all.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	6. Chapter 5

"Bella, this is Paul." Sam introduced us. It was then when the entire room had stopped their mindless chatter and dropped their petulant little eyes upon me while I eye-fuck this total stranger.

Jacob's arms tightened around my waist as I raised my hand to give him a small, shy wave. "Hey." I said quietly. _Maybe I should apologize for slapping him..._

Paul grunted and pushed himself off the door fram to make his way towards the table. I turned around in Jacob's arms and scrutinized him.

_Paul turned into a gigantic wolf and fought my best friend. _

I was beyond scared for not only my safety, but the safety and well-being of others. He wasn't nice; he had called me a leech lover and nearly attacked me.

"Bella," Jacob fussed. "it's okay, he won't hurt you. Not while I'm around." He reassured me. I took a deep breath, nodded and laid my head on his shoulder.

_Jesus..._

"What is she still doing here? This is a pack breakfast! She.." His voice was laced with venom as he spoke. "isn't part of the pack."

He was right, I had no reason to stay here..._except for the delicious mouth-watering pancaked...and Jacob, of course._

"She can stay as long as she wants." Jacob defended me. _Thank you, Jake._

"We need to discuss what happened with the leech." He growled. "And she's a leech lover." _Ah...more nicknames. _"Besides, she's not even in the tribe. She's a paleface." He spat.

"Enough!" An authoritative voice vibrated throughout the kitchen, making me shiver.

"She's Jacob's friend, so she can stay." Sam said with finality. _Fuck yeah._

"So, what leech are we talking about?" Jacob inquired.

"The same one we chased to Canada last week." Embry piped in.

I opened my eyes, intrigued by their conversation but also distracted by the plateful of pancakes. I wasn't expecting Jacob to interrupt his important conversation to eat, so I picked up my fork. But as soon as I gripped it, I grimaced.

Jacon pried the fork from my hand and put it back on the table. My eyes focused on the plate that taunted me.

"...so she got away again." He said, pulling out the chair next to us. He lifted me up and onto the chair and swivelled it so that I faced him. "Why does she keeping coming back?" He asked the pack. He sliced off a piece of the pancaked and raised the fork to my mouth so that I can eat.

"We don't know." Sam sighed, defeated. I looked up to see grave looking, exhausted faces. This was really bothering them.

"This is bullshit!" Came an abrasive voice, which surprised me. "She said, 'You can't protect her forever.' or something like that." I looked up at the source of the voice and was met by hazel eyes. I swallowed my pancake. Paul was leaning against the counter, next to the fridge with a sandwich in hand.

"Well, it's not like we can invite the red head to lunch and ask her what she wants." Jared huffed. _Red-head? Victoria...oh god... _I gasped.

"What's wrong?" Jacob queried, abandoning the pancakes. "Is it your hand?" Worry was evident in his voice. I shook my head. "What is it?"

"Victoria." I mumbled, probably too low for them to hear.

"Speak up, leech lover!" Paul sneered.

"It's Victoria." I clarified, speaking up with a little more conviction. I stared at Jacob.

"Who's Victoria? Is she one of the Cullen's besties?" Paul mocked.

"No, not exactly." I whispered.

"What was that?" He asked, irritably.

"Not exactly." I muttered, staring down at the floor.

"That's it!" He bellowed, storming across the room and yanking from my chair. He gripped my arms and pushed me against the wall. I could feel my injured hand throbbing.

"You need to speak the fuck up, Isabella. The whole tribe's safety depends on your mumbled words." He shouted at me, slamming both hands on either side of my head. "Now!" He growled at me, and I scratched at his grip, squirming away from his hold and I backed towards the door.

"Paul, c'mon, ease up. She's had a rough day." Jared empathised.

Paul turned to glare at him. "Rough day..." He mumbled, scowling at me. Tears threaten to spill from my eyes. _What did I ever do to y-_

"Had a rough day?" He challenged. "You want to hear about mine?" He asked me rhetorically. I shook my head, clenching my teeth together. I didn't want to hear about it. I pressed my lips together and lowered my head . He stood in front of me, mere inches away that I could practically feel his breath on me.

"I was woken up at one in the morning, called to chase a red-eyed vampire away from my people all the way to the Canadian border. For nothing." He growled. I tried to reach for the door's handle, by I was practically shaking. He terrified me. I could feel his anger roll of him in waves and he was slightly shaking. Tears rolled down my face discretely, as my hair hid my saddened expression. "Then, I get into a fight with Jacob because I wasn't talking to his girlfriend nicely." He snarled, and my whole body went rigid. "I'm tired, frustrated and angry." He roared. "At you. The best part, though?" He lifted my chin with his index finger, revealing my tear soaked eyes. For a slight moment, I thought I saw his expression go soft, as if he felt guilty, but that quickly disappeared. "This is all your fault." He muttered to me in a hushed tone. He took a step back.

"This isn't her-" Jacob began.

"You sure about that?" Paul cut him off. "They stayed here because of her. We phased because of them and now there's a leech out there waiting for us to slip up!" He sneered.

"Paul, calm down." The Alpha soothed. "Bella," Sam started. "what do you know about this Victoria?"

I kept my head low, so that they didn't have to see my face.

"She's not their friend," I breathed. "she was a member of a small coven. We...I mean, the Cullen and I came across them once when we were out playing baseball." I paused, reliving the moment. "Her mate, James, found my blood appealing." I winced and heard a few growls erupt from the kitchen. "He hunted me all the way to Pheonix."

"You mean, he's the one to break your leg?" Jacob asked, shocked. I nodded.

"The Cullens saved my life, but James was killed." I stopped to gather my thoughts. "Now his mate, Victoria, wants revenge. 'A mate for a mate', was what Laurent, a member of their coven, had said to me in that clearing, the day I saw, um, some of you." I finished. _I fucked up big time, I know._

"Mate?" Paul smirked. "He's not your mate." He spat, whirling around to face me with his hazel irises. "Mates don't leave their love ones unprotected and vulnerable and they certainly don't leave them in the woods in the middle of the fucking night to die." He barked, with a humourless laugh. "You're not mate of his, you were a pet. A pet that they got bored of and abandoned." He didn't give up on his cruel words. "I would've done the same."

"That's enough now." Sam commanded. I could hear Paul growl under his breath.

"At least we got one thing from today's meeting." Embry said, enthusiastically.

"Yeah, Paul really hates Bella." Jared pointed out. _Oh yes, because we all couldn't figure that out on our own._

"Well that and we know what the thing wants. We've got the advantage of having Bella on our territory. With that, we can take her out."

"There's no fucking way we're user her as bait, if that's what you're implying." Jacob rumbled.

"No actually, that's perfect!" Paul said. "She needs to put some sort of effort into this, make our lives easier. After all, she's the only reason the thing's here."

"Nope, not happening. She isn't contributing as bait. She could die. Is that what you want, you want your impr-" Jake was cut off.

"Jake's right, Paul. That's too risky." Sam interjected. "We'll stretch out the shifts and push out the boundaries." Sam said, giving me a comforting smile.

"We don't have the resources to keep an eye out on you at school, but there will always be patrolling. We'll know if she comes back." Jacob added.

I nodded, but remained silent. The tears had dried up by now, and I'm sure I looked normal again, but I was still too shy - too scared - to look up.

"Jared and Jake, you two patrol till two. Paul will take over from Jared and I'll do the night shift with Embry." There were several grunts of resounding in the kitchen and I wasn't entirely sure who they came from.

Everyone was silent until Emily declared that her eggs were ready. The buzz started again, but I couldn't bring myself to move from the corner near the door. This couldn't be happening. I wasn't Edward's mate...he left me. Mates don't just leave, but he had left me and now all these people were dying because of me.

Victoria was after me.

"Bella?" Sam's voice called for me, but he sounded distant.

"Bella?" Jacob shook me, trying to grab my attention.

This was all my fault. They were risking their lives to save me from Victoria. I was putting Emily's fiancé at risk because of my choice of staying with the Cullens. Sam was a protector as Jacob had put it a year ago. He had his family, people who depended on him, he had to guide the boys that were currently huddling around a table, scarfing eggs down their throats. His life was precious, but what about me?

I was nobody.

I didn't have a family who depends on me, no one would care if I died at the hands of Victoria. I could end this, just walk out into the forest and wander around. Then, when Victoria gets me, she'll leave them alone. Sam would be safe, Jacob would too, so would Charlie. Everyone could return to their lives without a scratch. Everyone would be safe. They may miss me, or not, but no one I loved would be hurt. No one's son, brother, or father would have to die. It made perfect sense to me.

Just give myself over to her, and I could end this.

"Swan!" Paul yelled at me. My head immediately jerked and locked eyes with his hazel ones. I caught myself glaring at him. "Sam asked you a question, answer it!"

I looked at Sam, who was awaiting a response.

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"It's okay, Bella. Jake thinks you should spend as much time as you can on the res. After school, on the weekends, all your spare time here. It'll be easier to protect you if you're here. You don't have to, really, it's just a suggestion." Sam repeated himself.

"No, if it's easier, then I'll stay." I replied, my eyes flickering over to Paul and then down to the ground.

I didn't want to stay here anymore; I wanted out of this little room with all these men whose lives I had ruined. I grabbed at my chest, struggling to breathe. This was too overwhelming. This wasn't suppose to happen, I had made a choice in my stupid, little, meaningless life to be with vampires and now, I guess I had all this coming.

I eyed my truck from the living room window. It was calling out to me, offering me an escape, but I couldn't just leave.

"Come on, Bella, I'll take you home." Jacob chimed, suspiciously staring from the truck to me.

"No, it's okay, I can drive myself home." I countered, but secretly thanking him for a route out of this suffocating house.

I pushed myself off the wall and straightened myself up. "Thanks for the food, Emily, it was great." I complimented politely.

She nodded at me and smiled. "Don't be a stranger, Bella. Any friend of Jake's a friend of ours. No matter what other people may think." She smacked Paul's chest with the back of her hand. Sam quickly pulled her away from the hazel-eyed man and kissed the top of her head, in an effort to calm her down before she attacked Paul entirely.

Jacob stood up and led me out to the truck.

"Drive safe." He whispered into my ear, and ran past me, straight into the forest.

Sighing, I opened the driver's door but there it was again - the same pull I had felt earlier. I turned towards the house to see if someone was watching me, but I couldn't see anybody.

So, I climbed into my truck and drove back to my danger-magnet ass back home.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	7. Chapter 6

**(Paul's POV)**

As soon as Bella's death machine had peeled out of the drive, Sam slammed his mug down, chipping it slightly and no doubt, leaving either a dent on the poor counter, or splinters. He stalked towards me with loud steps. He meant business and everyone in the kitchen knew. Even I knew and I wasn't even facing him. I was looking out the window, watching the truck merge onto the traffic of the road instead, I knew what was coming next and I was prepared to face it just yet. Sam smacked his hand down on my shoulder and spun me around brutally towards him.

"What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Sam shouted at me. Emily was immediately by his side, running a comforting hand up and down his arm, trying to calm him down. It worked for a slight second.

"I'm not playing at anything." I retorted.

"Oh, is that so? You think pushing Bella around and yelling at her is acceptable?" He said, more straight forward than I expected.

"Well, I wouldn't have done it if she didn't need it." I sneered with a smirk, crossing my arms over my chest.

When I had pushed her for answers, I hadn't felt the same pain as I had when I called her a leech lover. She didn't need molly coddling like Black had been doing. She needed to be smothered like some toddler. She definitely didn't need to be enveloped in bubble wrap just like Jacob does with her, since the leech had left. She wasn't a some breakable china doll. She was imprinted to me and no way would I have been paired with some delicately petalled flower that can break with the lightest of winds. She would never stand a chance with me with my temper.

"No. You will not make this about the imprint, Paul. You should never treat any girl like that, ever. Not here, not anywhere." He instructed.

Several"what's", "imprints" and "Paul's" resounded throughout the kitchen. But by far, the most furious and loud words came from a tiny woman in front of me. I flinched away from her. _Shit, she was mad. _It was really interesting and funny, really, how afraid we were of her. Emily was a force to be reckoned with and arguably, the most powerful human in that room. Emily was the Alpha's imprint, for fuck's sake! I was in for a major ear bending. _Fuck me. _

And what I said next wasn't about to help my case. "I'll treat Bella the way I see fit; you can't do anything about it." I challenged.

"You imprinted on Bella?" Emily asked, and I nodded.

"So you treat her like that." She spat, disgusted. "How could you do that, Paul? She's your imprint!" She yelled, smacking me on the side of the head. I growled in return.

"Watch it." Sam cautioned me with his own growl. I narrowed my eyes at him and pushed past them. Sam's arm shot out to steady a very angry Emily.

"You can't tell me how to treat my own imprint." I stated.

I could feel the entire room's eyes on me, and I was getting irritated.

"Paul, there's no-" I cut Jared off.

"I never wanted to imprint on her and I certainly don't want it to be on someone who loved a leech." I seethed, despite the intense crushing pain in my chest. "Jacob can have her, I don't want her."

"You can't just hand her off like some trade!" Emily shouted, and I stared her down. She wasn't going to be the one to convince me to accept the imprint.

"The spirits chose her for you for some reason, Paul. She should be cherished, not pushed around like that. Imprinting's rare and should be prized, if not for yourself, then for this tribe." She continued, as if I was a petulant little child. "Don't you understand the pain _she _will be put through if you continue to do this?"

"I'm not going to accept Bella for her child bearing abilities and if I find out that Bella knows about imprinting, then someone's losing their balls." Were my final words before I stormed out of the house and straight for the forest. I didn't even bother stripping before I phased. It didn't take much focus for me to unleash my wolf; he had been clawing at my brain ever since I had stepped into the kitchen.

**_You stupid, selfish bastard._**My wolf growled at me as soon as the last tremor subsided.

_Whatever, _I laughed. My feet pounded furiously on the ground in the direction of my house. All I wanted to focus on was the green and brown blurs that travelled in my peripherals. But I wasn't fortunate enough. Her image played in my head over and over; her brows pulled together, her sweet little lips and those beautiful brown eyes...and...and how I made them tear up-_No, stop with these thoughts! She's Jake's girl now!_

_**She's ours, not his. But you still let him touch her**__**everywhere...**_My wolf tried to rile me up, and it was working. But he's not riling me up for the reason he wanted me to. He was making me angry, he shouldn't be so involves so soon! I could tell it would take a lot to pacify my wolf if he needed his imprint.

_Put your big boy pants on and simmer down, _I ordered.

_**She's ours.**_He growled again.

_Whatever, _I replied. I was approaching the tree line, just shy of my back yard and suddenly, I felt the exhaustion of the whole day weigh me down. I was dying for a shower and my bed.

**_We should be the one holding her. We should be the one providing her with everything she needs. She needs to feel safe and away from danger. But you're putting her out there,_**he snarled.

_We aren't supposed to do anything for her! _I roared inside my head.

**_You're going to hurt her if you keep this up._**Were his final words before I phased back and ran towards my house. I hit the punching bag hanging from a tree as I passed for good measure, and stormed up the porch. Kicking the door open, I ran up the stairs, skipping two at a time, into my room and then I ran to the end of the corridor. I traipsed into my bathroom and turned the thermostat on the shower to the hottest it could possibly go. Even at that setting, the water was still freezing. _Another perk of phasing, _I thought.

There was no need to undress, I was already naked. So, I climbed into the tub and washed my body with body wash, the bottle made a satisfying squelching sound.

I furiously scrubbed the dirt off my skin, like it had offended my mother. Stepping under the spray of the shower, I lathered my hair with shampoo and roughly ran my fingers through my messy hair. I think I may have pulled some hair in the process, but I didn't care. I stood under the water for a few moments more, then I ripped the shower curtain open and got out of the tub. My arm shot out and grabbed the towel hanging on a hook on the back of the door. I wrapped it half-heartedly around my hips, making my way into my bedroom, I wrenched open the drawers. Slipping on clean cut-offs, I threw myself onto my bed. _Finally. _

I closed my eyes, expecting to see tranquil black but what I saw what that little girl in my head. I snapped my eyes open and ran my hands over my face, hitting my head twice with the palm of my hand. _What's wrong with me?_

I closed my eyes again, but I was graced with chocolate brown orbs that belonged to Bella. _Great. _I picked my head up and threw it back down onto my pillow, trying to thrash the picture out of my head. It wasn't working. Her image had permanently burnt itself onto the inside of my eyelids, and it was infuriation. I growled and none to gracefully turned on to my stomach and buried my face into the pillow. There, in the fabric, was the faint smell of cherries. _That's exactly what I need. _My wolf jostled inside my cranium. _Shut the fuck up!_

I lifted my head from the pillow and scanned the room for my phone; there atop of the bedside table, it lay connected to a lead. I reached over and disconnected it from the charger to flip it open. A small message dropped down on the screen, flashing a name. I smirked and pressed the call button.

"Hi." Came a familiar voice from the other line, squeakily.

"Ten minutes." I instructed and hung up.

I made my way down the stairs at a more leisurely pace and walked into the kitchen. I closed the door I had burst through only ten minutes ago and snapped the lock onto it. Locking the door guaranteed no interruptions. Interruption wasn't needed right now. I scanned the bottom floor, contemplating whether or not I should clean up. It wasn't too bad. I lived alone; I never used this house for anything other than sleeping and showering, usually.

I stepped towards the doorway that lead into the front room and I leant against the frame, in view of the door. I crossed my arms over my bare chest and listened carefully for the distinct purr of an engine. But it wasn't there.

Lo and behold, a few moments later, a car was being parked in front of my house. I took in an unsteady breath, hear footsteps get closer and closer and I heard the doorknob twist. And I watched, as the door was pushed open.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	8. Chapter 7

A fucking hot silhouette of a girl stood in the doorway, peering into the room. _Please, please, please, _I pleaded, _this can't be happening. _

I opened my eyes, and to my relief, I could see that she was trailing her gaze from my feet to my face, her pupils dilated to twice their normal size. Her emerald green eyes locked onto mine and a pink blush crept down her face then travelled down her neck and disappeared behind her red floral dress. I didn't need to see how far that blush went, I knew where it was heading and I was dying to get my hands on her tight little body.

_**You want Bella, not that slut bag,**_my wolf muttered, in a disgusted tone.

Her flats made a thudding noise as she toed them off and kicked them to the side, closing the door behind her.

Her eyes met mine again as she walked towards me, nearly kissing me. She bit my lower lip and tugged on it, which made my dick twitch. She had no idea what she can do to me. She let out a shaky breath and ran hooked her arms around my neck, and I wrapped my arms around her. Her legs went around my waist. One of my hands had immediately snaked around her tiny little waist to press her against me, and my other hand cupped her ass; hoisting her up further. I pressed my lips to hers soft, supple ones, her legs tightening around my waist in response. She let out a soft moan, which vibrated against my lips.

She pulled back and rested her forehead against mine; she raked her nails on my scalp, making me sigh with content. _So fucking nice. _I opened my eyes to look at her freckled nose and beautiful eyes, but was met by her long brown lashes caressing her rosy cheeks instead.

"Hey," She said breathlessly. I could hear her heart beat fast and hard alongside my own.

"Hi," I greeted her, smiling at her obvious lack of restraint.

I turned and rested her against the door frame, allowing my hands to roam free. I started at her wrists and ran my hands to her shoulders; then down to her side, brushing my thumb lightly against the side of her breasts. I kissed her lightly and the corner of her mouth and ghosted down her jaw. I nipped and licked her jaw, where the scent of cherries was most poignant. She sighed and wiggled in my arms, searching for some sort of friction, which I gladly gave her. I traced her waist with my fingers and gathered the dress around her slim hips. I pushed her dress up further, revealing her creamy white thighs and thrust my clothed crotch up into her heat. _Damn, she's already wet! __**She's not the one who she be with us.**_

She let out an uneven little groan and again, bit her bottom lip. I kept up a slow, steady rhythm of thrusting as she manoeuvred to kiss my hair and trailed pecks down the side of my head, along my temple, kissed my right eye and then made a small path to my ear.

"Please..." She begged, trembling, as she licked the shell of my ear and sucked my lobe between her teeth. I grunted at her plea and pushed us off the door and headed for the stairs.

Capturing her lips again, I sucked her lip into my teeth and bit down ever so gently; enough to make her gasp in surprise. Her lips parted enough for my tongue to slip through. Her hot mouth tasted faintly of my body wash, making my cock grow even harder. Her tongue tried to fight for dominance against mine, but to no avail, I won. I would always win, today wasn't any different. I bounded up the stairs with her pressed tightly against my chest, and kicked my bedroom door open.

She squirmed in my constrictive embrace, signalling that she wanted to be let down and made a huffing sound when I didn't comply. _She's so cute. _Crossing her arms, she lent backwards against my head board and glared at me.

"What?" I asked.

"I want to..." She whined, running her dainty finger down my stomach and towards the place where we joined hips. My eyes never left her face as her eyes followed the path made by her finger.

"You want to what?" I teased, quirking my eyebrow at her silent request.

Her fingers stopped drawing circles around the button of my cut-offs. The long legs that were hitched and locked around my waist slackened and dropped down to the floor. But because I was taller and still had a tight hold of her hips, her feet couldn't touch the ground, no matter how much she struggled.

She looked up at me through her long eyelashes and whispered, "I want to suck your dick."

I smirked, who was I to refuse her? _**You have an imprint; she shouldn't be doing this to you.**_

I put her down and let her lead. We switched positions, and she was now backing me up against the head board. She pushed me down against the pillows. Lifting the hem of her dress, I hooked my fingers into sides of her white lace panties. I was hit with the scent of her arousal as her panties hit the floor. I closed my eyes and focused on the concentrated perfume of cherries and took in a deep breath. _Oh fuck me. _I pulled her in between my legs and nuzzled her stomach as she worked on getting the dress off. As soon as I heard the zipper stop, I pulled her dress off her shoulders and threw it to the ground. I pulled her down to straddle my lap.

I pushed the strap of her bra, kissing the skin as it was exposed. She moaned into my ear, as I did the same to her other strap. I worked my way back up her neck to capture her lips once more. She reached in between us and worked on getting my cut-offs unbuttoned as I moved our bodies further up the bed.

She sat upright and unclipped her bra properly, dropping it to the floor next to my bed. While she was doing this, I trailed open mouthed kisses from her belly button up towards her full breasts. She groaned as I swiped my tongue over the dark peak and sucked it into my mouth. She ground her core into my groin, and if I could get any harder, I did.

She placed her hands on my shoulders and pushed me back onto the bed. There was a loud popping sound as my suction on her nipple broke. She leant down to kiss my lips, her loose hair falling around us and acting as a curtain. My hands automatically went to grip her waist while the other cradled the back of her head; allowing me to change the angle of her head, deepening this kiss. She nipped her way to my neck, where she placed open mouthed kisses, occasionally flicking her tongue out to taste me. _Oh my god. _She kissed down my torso, paying extra attention to my sensitive nipples and navel. As soon as she reached the top of my cut-off's, she shimmied them down my hips and revealed my proud erection. Her hot breath was blowing across my hip.

I watched her closely as she reached her hand out and gave my shaft a confident squeeze before she lowered her hot, wet mouth onto my swollen tip. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I threw my head back onto the pulling, trying so hard not to blow my load right then and there. Her mouth hollowed out as she sucked my dick further into her hot mouth. She couldn't get my entire length into her mouth, so the hand at the base of my shaft pumped in unison with the rhythm of her head.

"Shit, fuck, oh god." Was all I managed to choke out as she sucked harder and increased her pace. She hummed in approval, causing vibrations to melt my resolve further. Her pace increased again, making my breathing come out in heavy pants.

"Stop!" I hissed through my clenched teeth and once again, she was straddling me.

She had a smug grin on her face as I flipped us around; her hips were cradling me perfectly. Without a moment's hesitation, I thrust into her, my tip brushing against her swollen clit and her back arched off the bed, squashing her chest into me. I placed my forearms on either side of her head and bent down to kiss the little scar on her temple. She turned her head towards me and kissed my more violently than I had expected her to. Our teeth made a clicking noise as they collided. We nipped and bit playfully at one another until she had to breathe again.

"Whoa!" She squealed, breathlessly. I pulled back and rested my forehead against hers, taking in her scent greedily. She ran her hand down my back and grabbed my ass, making me buck into her heat.

"Ung! Impatient much?" I mocked her, leaning over the bedside table. I grabbed a condom out of the top drawer and sat on my hunches between her legs. The position allowed me to see her naked glory clearly. Her hand snaked down in between her breasts and down her flat stomach to the strip of soft curls above her clit. I watched her hand as it rubbed circles around the sensitive nub and slipped a finger inside her tight little hole. Her lips glistened from the wetness of her heat and I couldn't wait any longer to be inside her. She was too damn sexy.

I leant forward, so the tip of my condom covered cock was teasing her hole; her hand still working on her clit. I pushed her hand away and out of my road. Moving forward, I pushed further into her heat and she arched her back of the bed, taking in more of the tip. I groaned at the feeling of her wrapped around my head. I fell forward and kissed her forehead before I thrust my entire length into her sweet pussy.

"Shit…so fucking good." I moaned as she clenched around my shaft. I hitched her leg over my hip allowing me to sink impossibly deeper inside her. I paused allowing her to adjust to my size.

"Move!" She demanded in a low voice, moving her hips up towards mine and I obeyed immediately.

"Oh god." She breathed against my shoulder, fingers digging into my lower back, urging me to go faster and I did. I dropped my forehead into the crook of her neck and kissed her repeatedly on her pulse point.

"You're so tight.t" I declared with a moan "…and...so...fucking...warm." I punctuated each word with a sharp thrust of my hips, making her squirm underneath me. She dragged her nails up my back and into my hair. She pulled my head up and captured my lips. Her breathing was becoming increasing uneven and laboured.

She pulled back roughly looking directly into my eyes. "I'm close!" She breathed and bit her swollen lip. I increased my pace and a moment later she was falling apart on my dick.

"Paul!" She let out I strained moan, her insides fluttered and contracted rhythmically around my entire length. I didn't stop my movements and rolled over, so she was now on top. Bracing her hands against my stomach she pushed down onto me, right the way through her orgasm. Grabbing her hips I lifted her slightly off my cock and thrust into her dripping core.

She threw her head back and chanted, "Baby, don't stop, don't stop!" Over and over until she was coming around me again. A thin layer of sheen sweat covered both our bodies and I lowered her back down onto me. This time I let her set the pace.

She clawed at my chest as she bounced up and down on my cock. I crossed my hands behind my head and enjoyed the view of her breasts bouncing in front of me. I could feel the familiar tightening in my balls as I leant up and sucked her nipple into my mouth again. My arms tightened around her waist pulling her to me. She cradled my head to her breast and placed a single kiss to the crown of my head.

"This feels so good." She whispered into my hair. "You're monstrous..." She breathed. I released her nipple with a pop and kissed my way up to her neck. My hand travelled up her back and hooked onto her shoulder. I pulled her down hard and thrust up even harder. A moan slipped through her parted lips and the tightening in my balls grew unbearable painful. I thrust up into her frantically searching for relief. I ghosted my fingers down to her clit and pinched roughly.

"Oh god!" She moaned, gripping me even tighter. Her quivering started again, I kept up a fast pace. She trembled in my arms arched her back and came again.

"B-Be…" I growled into her neck. _**Bella. **__No!_

I roared and shot my seed with one final thrust.

_**This shouldn't have happened. She isn't our mate.**_My wolf was angry.

But at that moment, I didn't feel the need to care.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	9. Chapter 8

**(Bella's POV)**

Weeks had passed since I discovered about werewolves and most of the time, I was spending my time at La Push. Usually, I was helping Jake fix the rabbit. By helping, I mean I was lying on the rabbit's seat, watching him sweat over his pride and joy.

Sometimes, we'd spend our time talking about school, cars or the pack and it really felt like the hole in my chest was beginning to re-fill itself. Occasionally, Embry would come down and help Jake with his project if he wasn't on patrol and on the odd occasion, Paul would join him. Embry was great and really playful. Paul, on the other hand, was Paul, I guess.

**Flashback ~**

I was sitting in the garage, on the work bench cleaning the engine block when I heard a loud banging noise followed by a muffled "ow!". Snapping my head around to the source, I saw Embry bent over clutching at his stomach struggling to breathe with tears rolling down his face. But that wasn't the only thing I saw. Jake's legs were sticking out the gaping hole where the engine belonged. His legs kicking violently and he was screaming obscene curses at Embry as he managed to claw himself out of the hole backwards.

"Why you little asshole!" He vented and grasped at Embry, his face red from all the blood that had run down his body. Embry dodged Jake's feebly attempt at trying to grab a hold of him. He skipped over to me and plonked himself on the bench. I scoffed at him, shaking my head. _I thought werewolves were supposed to be graceful._

"Bad form Jake, bad form." He teased, ruffling my hair.

"Shut up!" Jake growled at him from under his rabbit.

"I expected more from the future chief." Embry exclaimed, feigning disappointed. "Isn't that right, Bells?"

"Sure, sure." I laughed at the childishness and shifted uncomfortably, not looking up from the engine block. _What the fuck was buzzing?_

"Well, if you hadn't have deceived your best friend into thinking you were harmless, maybe he would've been more alert, isn't that right _Bells_?" The husky voice rang out through the garage. I abandoned my cleaning to look at Paul leaning over the rabbit handing Jake a long piece of wire.

I didn't answer him, didn't want to. He was a horrible person. He was always picking on me, making me feel useless and stupid. But because I didn't answer, his head raised towards me with a smirk plastered on his face. _I'm not going to answer you_.

"Hmm?" He encouraged, with a quirk of his eyebrow.

"Doesn't matter," Embry rumbled, to my rescue. "let's get something to eat, I'm starving." Em declared, pulling me out the garage and towards Billy's kitchen.

"So Bella, what's been happening?" He asked, pushing me gently into the in the kitchen.

"Helping Jake clean out his engine, before you so rudely interrupted." I huffed to his back as he started to get out the ingredients needed for sandwiches, I presumed. The boy loved his sandwiches.

"Yeah, saw that." He chuckled, "How's school treating you?" Trying very hard not to make too much of a mess.

"It's fine. It's school, Em, what do you expect? You go to school; you should know what schools are like." I didn't want to talk to Embry about school. At the moment school was horrendous. Ever since the Cullens left, school had gone for okay to intolerable. The subjects were fine, not too much hassle. But the people were on a whole other level of intolerable. For the most part they were lovely people but now and again you would get the odd one who never let the fact that the Cullens left me die off. It was for every going to hang above my head like some dull, grey cloud that was pissing on me constantly.

"Yeah I know what you mean, schools a bitch! I can't wait to graduate though. Sam keeps pestering us to stay on top of our work. But it's hard you know, with patrols and all and Victoria isn't letting up either." He hissed the last part. "Plus my mother thinks I've got in with the wrong crowd." Em said, rather dejectedly.

"You're a protector." I reasoned "The epitome of a good person, everything about you is pure." I whispered like it was some sort of secret. _Well it was, technically_.

Shuffling into the seat opposite me, on the other side of the island, "Yeah, I know that. You know that. But Bells, my mother doesn't know that." Embry sighed, passing me my own sandwich.

"You haven't told her?"

"Nope." He mumbled.

"Why?" I asked stupidly. _Personal Bella! Personal _"You don't have to answer that." I brushed the inappropriate question off the table; metaphorically and physically with a wave of my hand over the counter.

"No, it's fine." He reassured. "I don't want to hurt her. She's looked after me all by herself, you know. I never knew my dad…" He took in a deep breath.

"She told me he was a Makah. But I know he's not." Pausing to collect himself.

"Doesn't the wolf gene only-" I thought out loud.

"Yeah." He said with a great big smile "Wow Bella, Jake's right. You are a smart little cookie." Reaching over the counter and ruffling my hair like I was some two year old that had just successfully named the colour of her shirt.

Moving out of his reach, "I'm not little," I ground out. The word made my insides twist.

"Sure, sure." He laughed "So, because my mother is Makah and the wolf gene only runs within the Quileute tribe. Meaning my father must be part of this tribe, part of the elder line."

"The elder line?" I didn't know what that meant.

"Yup, the elder line. You know we have a chief and elders who sit on the tribes' council." He looked up at me so I could confirm that I knew. And I gladly did, I knew Billy was chief.

"The elders are descendants of the first Quileute's. Blacks, Ateras, Uleys and the Clearwaters, are all sources of the wolf gene. My father, theoretically, is from one of these lines." He told me.

"I didn't want to hurt my mom by telling her I knew she had been lying to me for my whole life. I won't be able to live with myself knowing my mother is living with the guilt of me discovering her lies. I love my mother too much, she's my entire world. I can't hurt her." His breath coming out unevenly. And he rocked subtly back and forth on his seat.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. T_his was all my fault, Em wouldn't be in this situation if I hadn't been with the Cullens._

"It's fine, phasing is the best thing tha-" The kitchen door was pushed open rather violently.

"That for me?" Paul questioned pointing at my untouched sandwich. But before I could reply, he had thrown himself down onto the chair next to me. "Thanks Bella. You didn't have to." He said, pulling the plate in front of him and literally inhaling the sandwich in 10 seconds.

"I didn't." I said getting up from my chair and storming out to Jake. _I was actually going to eat it._ Something I hadn't been doing much of lately.

**~ End of flashback**

But today I was going to Emily's to help her with cooking for the pack. Jake had told me they were having a bonfire down at the beach.

It was noon and all my classes for the day had finished meaning I could go down to the res and actually do something useful, something I was good at and knew all about. Working with Jacob was great but I would get lost when Jake got too excited about something I just couldn't fit my head round.

When I walk out to the truck, I was surprised to see Paul leaning against it. He was all sweaty and half naked.

"What do you want?" I spat from the top of the steps, knowing he could hear me perfectly fine.

"I _want_ to be sleeping, but I have to escort youR skinny ass down to Emily's." he uncrossed his arms, releasing the tension in his biceps.

"I think I'm quite capable of driving myself to Emily's without supervision." I was now standing a few metres away. I raised my eyebrow at the man-child silently communicating for him to get out my way.

Pushing himself off the truck. "Please, little girl, you can't even walk down stairs without face planting." His voice grated on my nerve.

"Get out my way!" I ground out my previously silent request. _Stupid wolf._

"Gladly." He hissed, walking around to the passenger side.

The drive down to La Push was longer than I remember it used to be. But maybe that was due to the edgy atmosphere in the cab. Paul kept fidgeting and mumbling, once he even growled. But I ignored the idiot. I didn't even acknowledge his presence when he asked me how I was doing. _He didn't deserve any effort._

"Jesus Bella, get off your high horse and answer the damn question!" He growled at me.

_Fuck you._

"Fine, I'll answer for you since you're clearly not capable." He started. "Paul, I'm not doing so great, can't you see I'm all skin and bones. I don't even look like a girl anymore. And it's been days since I've even run a brush through my hair." He put on this disgusting valley girl accent.

I checked my mirror to see a vacant highway 101 behind me. I slammed the breaks on the truck and the momentum sent my body hurtling forward to the steering wheel. Thank fuck for my seat belt, I just missed out on getting my face smashed in.

"Fuck, Swan!" My head snapped to the wolf in the cap that hadn't even moved an inch.

"Get out." I hissed through clenched teeth.

"What?" He asked surprised. _What? You thought you could get away with pulling shit like that on me big boy. Think again._

"I said get the fuck out my truck now." Growling slightly this time.

"But I ha-"

"What part of 'now' can't you get through your thick skull?" I stated calmly.

He didn't say anything else just opened the door and got out. _Finally._

I pulled into the drive of the house, all the pack was in the back yard except Jacob and Paul. _Guess Jake was patrolling._

"Oh thank god you're here!" Emily shouted with relief pulling me into a bear hug, I doubt she even knew she was loud. The woman was deceptively strong.

"Need some help?" It was pretty much a rhetorical question but she answered anyway.

"You have no idea. It's hard trying to cook for these boys and trying to keep them from eating it before its time, it's impossible." She said in one big breath. "I had to send Paul to get you _just _to keep him out of my stew. And it wasn't even cooked yet!" She squealed the last part pushing me over to the island in the kitchen. On it was loaf after loaf of bread and a whole selection of sandwich fillings.

"Em, are you sure we're only feeding the pack and not a small army?" I asked concerned the boys had finally driven her to insanity.

"Hello Bella," Came the deep voice of Sam. "Glad you could make, Emily was about to have an aneurism trying to do so many things at once." He floated over to Em and gave her forehead a little kiss "Don't work so hard, honey." He whispered and left with a cup of coffee.

And so it began. I made mountain after mountain of sandwiches, brownies and pasta salad. And what felt like a few hundred years later I collapsed onto the sofa in the front room.

I soon as I closed my eyes I could feel someone hovering around the sofa. "I'm sorry Bella but could you run out to Paul's truck and get the cooler full of hot dogs please." She asked. "I wouldn't ask you if the boys were around but I can't see them anywhere" her face apologetic.

"No, it's fine I'll do it right away." I peeled my protesting body off the comfortable couch and made my way done the porch to the handful of parked trucks. But there was one problem. I didn't have a clue which one was Paul's.

"Hey, Emily!" I called inside. "Which one is Paul's?"

"The black one." Came a voice but it wasn't the sweet voice I was expecting.

Right, of course it was. _Just like his heart._

I made my way over to the truck and opened the door but he caught my hand before I could touch the cooler.

"I'll do it." Paul told me.

"I got it." I reprimanded

"Bella, I'll do it. Besides you've been working all day and the cooler is quite heavy."

"No, Emily told me to get it. So I'll get it." I looked to his hazel eyes and gave the best glare I could muster with the little energy I had.

"Suit yourself." He smirked down at me.

I pushed his hand away from the cooler and proceeded to pick it up. And Christ it _was _heavy but I wasn't about to let that stop me. I kicked the door closed with my foot and made the rest of the journey up the porch and into the kitchen without too much difficulty; And surprisingly without falling.

I put the cooler on the island next to the never ending cellophaned trays of sandwiches.

"Thanks Bella. Paul, do you know if Sam's warmed the barbeque?" She inquired, stirring the stew and adding a few more spices to the heavenly smelling pot.

"Yeah, but he's down at the beach getting the bonfire started. Do you want me to start on the hot dogs?"

"That would be great." She sounded relieved "I don't think poor Bella would be able to stand any longer." She walked over to me with a plate with some finished stew and a biscuit. "You should go lay down for a while, you've been a great help, I wouldn't have done all this without you." She waved her hand over the sandwiches and pasta salad bowls. The stew was done and the last batches of biscuits were in the oven. The brownies I had made were cooling on the window sill.

"No problem Emily, anything to help." I rubbed my eyes finally letting myself feel tried. I took the plate form her hand and wandered over to the couch. I placed the plate onto the coffee table and sunk into the cushions on the loveseat. I finally closed my eyes.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	10. Chapter 9

**(Paul's POV)**

I wanted her to talk to me and the only way I knew how was to poke her until she cracked. That's what I did.

Bella looked sickly thin walking down her school steps and I swear she even swayed a little when she stood in front of me. My wolf was clawing within my skin for just one touch. _**Just one.**_ I had tried to keep him stated by spending as much time as I could around her but even then he wasn't satisfied. He craved her attention; he wanted us to be constantly touching her like Embry had been doing. The idiot didn't even know how lucky he was to still be alive. I didn't mind Jake being around her but Embry was a whole different story. I hadn't given him permission touch her, but there he was doing it anyway.

I wanted to know how she was doing so I asked her like anyone would ask. But no, she wouldn't fucking answer me, actually made it a point to ignore me. _That shit hurt._ So I answered for her. I tried to make my response as annoying as possible even put on a dumb, fake accent. But to get her attention and compel her to at least recognise my presence, it seemed necessary. What I didn't expect her to do was slam the breaks on her truck and nearly kill herself on the steering wheel.

"Get out." Her head snapped around to me, hair whipping across my face. I was assaulted by her scent. I poked fun at her before but never had she taken on such an aggressive tone to my actions. _Little girl had some balls._

I was surprised to say the least. But I didn't actually expect what would come out her filthy little mouth next. "I said get the fuck out my truck now!" Her eyes blazing with fire.

Now those were the qualities of _my _imprint.

Something stirred in my pants. And right about now, my wolf was rattling the cage. I could smell her defiance and all my wolf wanted to do was make her submit to us. But she was having none of it. So I jumped out the truck and ran towards the wood. I needed to get my head straight. But fuck me if that was too much to ask. Jake was on patrol. _Great._

'_What did you do now?' _The pup echoed in my head. I didn't answer him, didn't think I could. So I just showed him.

All he said back was, _'Yeah, she hasn't been eating all that much lately.'_

What?! _'That's all you got from this whole encounter?'_ I was all confused about her outburst and here he was brushing it off like it was natural for Bella to bust someone's balls.

'_It is natural.' _He laughed. '_Bella's always been like that. She might look like a sheet of rice paper. But actually she's a block of reinforced steel.' _I could feel his wolf grinning in my head.

'_And how don't I know this?' _I was beginning to get a headache, all thanks to my wolf. _**Ours, of course she's strong. You moron.**_

'_You never gave enough time to really get to know her Paul. Besides that leech did a number on her. She's not been herself lately. Always undermining herself, always apologising.' _He growled. '_And you haven't been letting up on your quest to fight the imprint either.' _He spat at me. '_How's that going? Have you got it out your system yet or do you still think you can fuck the bond away?_' he laughed.

_'This isn't funny, Jacob._' Not amused.

He flashed an image of her curled up on the seat of the rabbit sleeping. _'She doesn't do much sleeping, either.' _He sounded sullen. _'She feels it you know.' _He sighed. _'The imprint.'_

I didn't know what to say to that, I just kept running.

'_She says she can't sleep at home, only on the res.' _He informed me _'says she doesn't feel right._ _I told her she was being ridiculous. But we know why she doesn't feel right, don't we?'_

'_She's yours; you should know what the fuck is wrong with her messed up sleeping pattern.' _I interjected.

'_You do know I don't feel anything for her anymore, besides the need to protect her. And Paul, I've been busting my ass trying to keep her for all her demons. And never would I have imagined that I would be protecting her from her imprint. Even if I wanted to Paul, I can't be any more than friends; I don't feel the need to be anymore.'_

'_What?' _Well this was a revelation.

'_I don't love her like that anymore.' _He said with sincerity in his voice.

'_I'll see you later.'_ And I phased out. Sliding my cut-off's on and wandered into Emily back yard. The pack was playing soccer and Bella and Emily were cooking up a storm in the kitchen, no doubt.

"Hey Paul, wanna play?" Jared jogged up to me and threw me the ball.

"Not just now." And I threw the ball right back at him.

I walked over to the swing on the porch and sat down. From here I had a clear view of Bella working on the sandwiches in the kitchen. So I sat, I watched and I thought.

I thought of all the things that led me to this point. It was because I didn't want to be tied to one person for the rest of my life. But it was going to happen anyway, what better way than be tied to the one person in this entire universe made especially for me? Was that really bad? I thought back to all the girls I had been with ever since I had imprinted. I thought how fucking them didn't bring me any happiness, how it didn't feel right like it used to. I let my eyes roam over Bella, and I honestly felt like I got more joy out of watching her from a distance than I ever got from screwing the hottest girl in La Push. _**We don't want anyone else.**_ My wolf sounded dejected. And all the time I was fighting, Bella was suffering because of my stubborn ass. I was unknowingly hurting the one thing in the world I was supposed to protect. The constrictive belt around my chest suddenly tightened to fifteen notches. I was the worst imprinter ever.

Sam lived with the scars he caused Emily right in front of his face. He was constantly reminded that he should control his wolf, but what about me? I had inflicted pain to Bella's heart; the place where I could get to. I couldn't heal them directly. But I sure as hell would try. _I've gotta try._

The biggest reason for not accepting the imprint was Jacob Black. But he had just told me that he no longer felt romantic feelings for the girl. So what exactly was stopping me?

_**Yourself.**_

Nothing was stopping me, nothing at all. The only reason to not accept the imprint now would be because of me. But why would I not want her? I looked back at her pretty little sweetheart face. She was absolutely beautiful but still I couldn't accept her. I thought for a little while longer. Pondered the reasons for not accepting the imprint and what was holding me back now, until in dawned on me. I was afraid of rejection. I had pushed her so far that I was afraid she would push _me _away. I was scared she would deny me any sort of relationship, terrified I would lose her. _I can't lose her_. She was literally my entire universe; I'm only living for her. But still I treated her like dirt, thought she was never good enough for me. _Great going Paul._ I had to make sure she wouldn't push me away. But I didn't know where to start. I had to talk to someone; maybe Jake or Sam.

"Paul! We're going down to the beach, you coming?" Embry yelled from the other side of the yard.

"Yeah, give me a second." I called back. I turned back to look into the kitchen and I saw Bella struggling to balance the trays of sandwiches she had made. _Maybe I should go help her?_ No, she wouldn't really want me near her since what had happened in the truck. Why the hell did I have to be a jackass all the damn time? I looked round the yard until my eyes landed on my alpha. He was standing in front of the barbeque lighting it up.

"Sam, can I talk to you?" I approached him slowly trying not to make any sudden movements. He had this look I'm his eyes like I had grown two fucking heads. "What?" I asked be he just shook his head with the dumbest expression on his face.

"Sure, just let me get this warmed up and then I'm all yours." He said, waving his hand over the coals. I watched him light the newspaper and waited until he was satisfied the coals wouldn't go out. He motioned for us to walk in the direction of the beach. Guess it was time to get the bonfire set up, it was getting late.

"What is it?" he asked

"It's about Bella." I started "Today Jake told me he didn't have any feelings for Bella, as more than I friend." I kept walking with my eyes on the ground.

"Yes, and?" Sam encouraged.

"Well I guess there's nothing holding me back from accepting Bella as my imprint." I continued.

"Uh-huh, and the problem is?"

"The problem's me." I growled up at the sky.

"Well you can say that again." He mumbled. My head snapped to my Alpha and I snarled at him.

"Whoa there big guy." He raised his hands in surrender.

"What exactly is the matter?" He tried to understand the problem but I just couldn't find the right words. What was I supposed to say to him? You know how I've been I dick to her recently and how I've screwed every single girl on the res. Well, I think Bella's never going to accept me. And hell once she knows I tried fighting the imprint. I don't think she's ever going to let me see her ever again. What the fuck do I do?

"I'm scared she's going to reject me" I whispered.

"I'm not gonna lie to you. She might reject you, but we're not gonna let that happen. All you have to do is get to know her. Let her get to know you. The _real_ you Paul and not the bellend everyone thinks you to be. Give it time and be kind. That's all you can do, don't force it. Just let it happen." Was all he said before he ran off towards the guys, who were starting to collect drift wood for the bonfire.

It was easy really. Just let I happen. Because it would happen, we were meant to be. I joined the guys and we started laying down logs systematically; First for the actual bonfire and then for the seats. But the timber for the seats we had to get from the forest, so we trekked the forest for the perfect logs. When we finally got everything organised, Sam sent me back to the house to help the girls with bringing out the food.

I took my sweet time and I had never timed anything better in my life than this. As I was walking through the house I heard Bella call for Emily. Em was about to leave her task but I said I'd go see what she needs.

It was simple really; she didn't know which truck was mine. So I told her, but what did she want out of my truck. And then I remembered. I had the cooler full of hot dogs. I offered to help her but she refused my help. _Just as stubborn as me._ I smirked at her. And then she touched my hand. Well pushed it out the way, but still there was contact. Electricity shot up my arm and straight to my heart. _There's no way she didn't feel that_. But I was wrong she hadn't felt anything. I followed her into the house watching her closely just in case she injured herself. But she didn't, which was no mean feat for Bella.

I offered to help cook the hot dogs while Bella took a well-deserved nap in front room. She still hadn't eaten the stew Emily gave her but I just put it down to her feeling too tired. Once I had finished cooking half the hot dogs I started loading my truck with the food. And every time I passed the loveseat I would chance a peek at my sleeping imprint. She looked so peaceful that I didn't want to wake her when it was time to leave, but I had to.

I crouched down next to her sleeping form and ran my thumb over her cheekbone. But she didn't stir, all she did was sigh and snuggle deeper into the couch.

_Adorable._

"Bella you need to wake up, it's time to go." I whispered in her ear but I guess it wasn't loud enough. So I tried again, but this time I shook her a little.

"Come on, wake up." I said louder and this time she squeezed her eyes shut before she forced them open.

"Time to go to the bonfire." I said, pointing at the door.

"Oh, okay." She said, before shutting her eyes again and drifting off. _Well I guess she was too tired._

Right, well, I just had to carry her. _**Yes, yes touch her; hold her in our arms.**_ My wolf howled with happiness. So that's what I did, well I carried her soft body to my truck. I hopped in trying to keep the ride as smooth as possible. And then I handed her over to her best friend once we were at the beach. I didn't think she would appreciate waking up and finding herself snuggled into me. But I fucking wanted her to. For the briefest amount of time I wasn't in constant pain.

And it was nice.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	11. Chapter 10

**(Bella's POV)**

Someone jostled me slightly but it wasn't enough to coax me out of my peaceful slumber. I had over worked myself with making food, plus I hadn't eaten at all today. I figured I'd eat while I was at Emily's but because all that food had to be prepared I got a little distracted. I faintly remember Paul telling me we had to leave, but to be honest I couldn't care less.

I could hear a crackling sound be it was so far away it didn't bother me too much. What pissed me off was the wet thing inside my ear. I pushed at it but it wouldn't stop coming back. I furrowed my brows in frustration at this annoying little…whatever it was. Then I heard it. The distinctive rumble of a chuckle and I immediately new who and what it was.

"Ew! Jake, stop it." I said my voice thick with sleep. And then he burst out laughing. I opened my eyes to see his head through back in the air and I got the most attractive view of his nasal passage. I rubbed by eyes and moved so I was sitting upright in his lap.

"Hey there sleepy head." His breath blew onto the back of my neck. I ignored him, yawning I pushed into his hard stomach to throw myself down on the log next to him.

Now that I had wiped the sleep from my eyes I could see that we were at the beach. Now that I was away from Jake's suffocating form, I could smell the brine sea air. I could feel the wind nipping at my skin. Looking around I could see the pack. Billy was there too with some other older people I hadn't met yet. I saw Emily and another girl standing next to her on the other side of the huge bonfire. _Guess that was the crackling._ But the one thing that stood out the most in this moment was Paul.

He was sitting opposite us on the other side of the flames. The fire reflected the gold flecks in his eyes. Each time a flame flickered his eyes would light up. It was sort of beautiful. _Beautiful, Paul? _I snorted to myself. He was anything but. He was an asshole, scumbag, prick – he wasn't beautiful! Averting my eyes from Paul I cast my gaze over to the older men at the gathering.

Nudging Jake in the ribs. "Who are they?" I asked nodding to the men huddled by Billy.

"They are the elders." Jacob looked at me sideways. _Oh._ "That's Quil's Grandfather, the one next to him is Harry Clearwater. Your dads friend." He said pointing to the grey haired man with his back to me. "And of course you know my dad, the rest…you don't really need to know." I looked at his sceptically but I let it go. If there were elders here then perhaps I was intruding in tribal business and I didn't want to do that.

"Maybe I should leave." I said getting up from my seat and started walking to the lights illuminating the parking zone. Emily's house was only a 10 minute walk away, it'd be fi-.

"Bella where are you going?" Jake grabbed my hand and spun me to face him, he looked majorly confused.

"Erm…home?" it was meant to be a statement but it came out more of a question.

"Why? Are you sick?" I pushed his overheated hand away from my forehead. _Like you can feel my temperature change._

"No…I don't want to intrude." I said in a quiet voice and started walking toward the cars again. I could feel his heat following me.

"Where the hell did you get that idea?" He said in a strained voice, suspiciously sounded like he was trying not the laugh. "Don't be ridiculous!" But I kept on walking. "Bells stop." We were now under the dim lights of the street lamps. "What's wrong?" He asked completely serious now, he even had that little stress wrinkle across his forehead. He rubbed the tops of my arms comfortingly.

"I don't want to intrude in tribe business." I repeated myself looking at his bare feet.

"Bella, you're not interrupting tribal business. Why would you even think that?"

"Emily told me this was just a pack thing, I didn't know that the tribes elders would be here." I lifted my shoulder to my ear in a half shrug.

"Honey, the elders are only here because they want to talk with Sam about Quil, nothing major…well when I say nothing major. I mean he's about to phase. They just wanted to tell us to keep an eye on him." He shifted his weight for one foot to the other.

"Phase? But they're gone…" I felt the hole in my heart grow ten times bigger. My entire chest hurt, I couldn't breathe. _They were back?!_

"No, no, Bella they're not here. Jesus, it's okay. Bella he's not here!" Jake had crushed me to his bare chest and held me as I shook with fear. "It's the red head not them, she's the reason he's about to phase." He soothed, stroking my hair. _Yeah like that made me feel better. _"It's okay, you're okay." He stroked his hand from the top of my head down my neck to the middle of my back, repetitively. It was constant, it was familiar, it's was what I needed.

"Jake!" A gruff voice shouted towards us but I couldn't see who it was, I wasn't facing him. I had my cheek pressed against Jacobs's chest and I was facing the wrong way. But of course I didn't need to see who it was. I knew. It was him. Jake lifted his face out of my hair and I felt him turn his head towards the voice.

"What?" I sighed from the rumble omitted from Jake's chest as he said the word.

"Foods here." Paul informed.

"Bella." He pushed me slightly away from himself and forced my head upwards with his finger. "Look at me," I did. "You are pack and you are a part of this tribe. Don't ever think you're not part of this family." He said pointing towards where the pack was, I presumed. I couldn't bring myself to look away from his sincere eyes to look where he was pointing. "Now come on. I'm starving!" he whined.

"Actually, I think I'll head home." I said in a quiet voice.

"Jake!" Paul shouted again.

"Fuck Paul give me a second!" He snapped at Paul. "Bella, do I need to get Emily?" He threatened when I turned towards the house. _Oh…he wouldn't._

But when I turned back to face him he was all challenging looking. His right hip was jutting out. His hands where planted firmly on his hips. His chest was raised and puffed out. His chin was lifted subtly. His eyes narrowed at me. His eyebrow rose. _Oh…but he would._

"Y- You wouldn't?" I sputtered

"Wouldn't I?" He laughed

"What's the hold up?" Paul shouted as he strode between us, planted himself in our little battle. He was looking between Jake and I expectantly, but I wasn't about to answer him.

"Bella thinks she isn't welcome here, thinks she can skip out on us and we wouldn't care." His voice dripped venom at his pack mate. You'd think it was his fault. "She thinks she isn't pack." Why was he talking like I wasn't here?

"I'm right here!" I pointed out but that only earned me some weird ass looks from both of them. "Right, I'm leaving now…" I turned to walk away from them.

"Emily's gonna whoop your ass." Paul's voice confidently whispered in my ear.

"Doubt it." I said and kept walking.

"You insult her, she'll hurt you. No one's going to save you from her, even I won't be able to save you." _yeah like I wanted any help from the douche._

"I haven't insulted her" _I hadn't, had I?_

"You will if you go home without eating anything" that stopped me dead in my tracks. I hadn't thought about that. I would feel awful if someone did it to me. Leaving without saying anything and especially after not, at least, trying what I had cooked. She'd worked so hard on the stew and I hadn't even tasted it.

"Emily won't 'whoop my ass'." I denied. She couldn't hurt anyone and I kept walking.

"Oh Isabella, that's where you're wrong." He jumped in front of me, causing me to crash into him. "One time..." He started walking backwards the muscles in his stomach clenched now and again, making my insides flutter. "We were all sitting round the table and there was food covering every inch of the kitchen." _Was he telling me a story, acting like we were best friends? _Who cares at least he wasn't stopping me from getting home.

"And Jared was babbling on and on and on about how awesome Kim was in bed. You know as per usual?"

"Actually I don't." I answered his rhetorical question.

"Well if you were at the beach right now then you would!" He grumbled. "Anyhow, he said something like a woman is only good for two things; Sex and cooking. It was a total joke but Emily clobbered him in the back of the head with a frying pan anyway." He burst out laughing; clearly I had missed the joke.

"Sounds like he deserved it." I picked up my pace because I could see my truck now.

"He did, but the moral of the story. Emily is fearless. If she can hit a wolf, she'll have no problem beating you hiney." He smirked down at me stopping in front of my truck. _whatever, time to go home._

I opened the door half way before his heated hand rested on top of mine, stopping me from opening the door anymore, "I'll drive." He offered.

"Nope, I'll drive." I tried opening the door further. Damn werewolf wouldn't let me open it.

"It'll be a lot easier if you just let me drive." His breath wafted across my forehead.

"No." I ground out trying to get the door open but of course it wouldn't. "Fine," I growled at him. I dug out my keys from my pocket and fully intended to drop them on the ground but he caught them. I scuffed my way round to the other side and got in the truck. And then we were pulling out the drive.

But we weren't headed home. Nope, we were going back to the beach. "That's not the way to my house." I informed him rudely.

"When did I say I was taking you home? If I recall correctly I said I would drive. I never mention where to." I whipped my head towards him. He had this smug grin plastered to his face. _Oh you think you're clever._

He parked the truck in front of Jacob "Hey, Jake!" Paul called to my best friend. He leaning against the lamp post with the same smug look Paul had on his face. "Heads up." The bastard tossed my keys to him. And of course Jake caught them.

"I hate you." I directed that at both of them but they didn't seem to care. "I'm staying right the fuck here."

"Jesus Bella, stop being so stubborn." Jacob exclaimed pulling me out the truck. "I promise it's just us, no tribal business. You're not intruding." He said firmly, pointing his finger at me like I was some petulant child.

"Sure sure." Pulling me towards the blazing fire.

"Wow, you've been around him too long bells." Paul decided to point out falling in step with us. "You should hang out with me some time."

"Nope, you're not fun to be around." I stated matter of factly.

"Trust me Bella I'm just as fun as Jake, if not more." I jerked away for him as he whispered in my ear again. _What was with all the whispering?!_

"Come on Bella I'll introduce you to everyone." I looked at him skeptically. He chuckled at my expression "Yeah yeah, I'll introduce you to the one person you haven't met yet." he corrected ruffling my hair.

Jake ushered me to the other woman I saw standing next to Emily. "Bella this is Kim, Kim this is Bella." He said, pushing me slightly forward none to gracefully.

"Hi." I waved at her shyly. "Nice to meet you." I offered her a smile. I still hadn't looked at her but her feet were extremely interesting.

"Likewise." Her voice slightly malicious and it didn't pass me. I looked up to see her eyes narrowed to slits. Her lashes brushed the top of her high cheekbones as she looked down on me; her flat hair wisped in the sea breeze. Her skin looked like silk as the fire of the bonfire illuminated and enhanced her gorgeous russet skin.

"Right, well. Let's get you something to eat then, shall we." Emily's sweet voice graced my ears and I nodded following her.

And that's how I found myself in a bit of a pickle. I was sitting squished between Embry and Jake. Embry was telling the story of when they all went cliff diving for the very first time. But I was occupied by the girl sitting opposite me on the other side of the fire. She would glare daggers at me now and again and I couldn't understand how she knew me enough to dislike me. And then I remembered the redhead. Jared was risking his life for a problem I brought upon them. _Right, of course_. I could never get away from her until she got me or the pack got her.

"Hey, have you come close to getting her yet?" I asked no one in particular. And immediately the whole pack snapped their heads toward me.

"You don't need to worry about stuff like that." The Alpha spoke authoritatively.

"No, I think I do." I said looking straight at Kim, she had this shocked look on her face. Maybe it was my bluntness or the fact I may have ratted her out, but I couldn't care less.

"Erm, Bells…we'll get her, don't worry about it." Jake rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He did it every time he lied.

"Right." I huffed. But let it go.

The buzz returned and everyone went back to their abandoned conversations. And turning to Jake I asked, "When are you taking me cliff diving?" Hoping he would say soon.

"I'm a bit busy right now…so maybe in a little while." I nodded at his response. I had already been waiting for a little while but I would wait for a little bit longer. A little bit longer.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	12. Chapter 11

**(Bella's POV)**

"Bellam come down here, please?" Charlie called from downstairs. I rolled myself out of bed and glanced at my alarm clock beside my bed. The traitorous thing read 6:03 AM. _What did he want to talk to me about so fucking early in the morning?_

Rubbing my eyes, I cautiously sauntered down the stairs taking care in not falling. Even though I had been sleeping the whole night without nightmares, I still felt like I had only got a few minutes of sleep; leaving me a little incoherent today. But as soon as I walked into the living room, I was shook to life by the scene in front of me. Charlie was loading his shot guns into his black, carry all, police marked bag. There were boxes and boxes of ammunition and a little sliver case with syringe type bullets with colourful ends lying on the kitchen table. _Tranquillisers?_

"What's going on?" I asked my anxious looking dad, voice laden with sleep.

Charlie let out an extended sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose before turning to face me. His eyes blurred with unshed tears. "I need you to stay out the woods and in this house at all times," His voice heavy with concern as he pointed to the floor. He placed his hands on his hips and turned towards the back door. "A couple went missing last night; eye witness said he saw the couple standing next to their car near the woods. When he came back out the ice cream parlour they were gone. The car doors were open and there was a grey wolf…or bear at the edge of the forest" he paused for a minute taking in deep breaths like he was about to hurl. "Their baby girl was out into a foster home last night…I need you to stay out of the woods. Do you hear me?" His voice cracked towards the end of the sentence.

"Yes." I whispered. _This is all my fault, _the little voice inside me screeched. I tried to cover my ears to keep me from hearing the voice. But the voice was inside me already. I tried shaking the voice out but that didn't conceal the fact that I had effectively taken someone's life again. _All my fault._

"We've set up a team to track it down. Don't call me on my cell, if you need me. Call the station they'll relay the message, okay? I'll be home at night." And with that, he picked up his guns and left me standing alone and cold in the house. I was putting more people at risk every minute she was out there looking. I was putting my family and friends at risks even people I didn't know. What was the baby's fault? Why was she left alone in the world? _You! All my fault._

It was all my fault, but I wouldn't take responsibility for not letting the pack know about Charlie's search. I needed to let them know, so that no one else got hurt.

Racing up the stairs, I launched myself across my bed to my phone on the night stand. I violently forced the phone open like it had offended me and called Jake's mobile. But the phone rang out. I dialled again.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up. Dammit Jacob, pick up the phone!" I growled into the air.

"Bella?" Jake's gruff voice travelled through the phone.

"They know. Charlie knows about the pack, he's out hunting the pack." I rushed out in one bid breath.

"Whoa, whoa. Slow down. Charlie knows?" He asked, confused.

"Yes Jake, he knows. And he's out in the wood with other people hunting you with guns and tranquillisers. Tranquillisers Jake! Fucking tranquillisers!" I shouted the last part.

"Calm down, Bella. It'll be okay. I'll let the pack know, don't worry about it. We'll handle it." He soothed with his velvet voice, trying to trick me into believing him. But I wasn't about to fall for it. He had assured me last night that it was nothing to worry about. Guess he missed out the part where a baby was orphaned!

"But Ja-" He cut me off.

"We'll handle it." He outright growled at me and hung up the phone before I could offer to help. _Fine! I'll find my own way._

I stomach in knots and my heart heavy I stepped into the shower to wash away the feeling of suffocation and guilt. There was something I could do anything. Every problem had a solution so why couldn't I think of anything to help. And then I remembered.

I knew how I could help the pack. Make sure that Charlie was safe, Jake was safe and everyone that matter to anyone was safe. That's all I wanted was for everyone to be safe.

Getting ready for school was a mechanical process and as always, I skipped breakfast. I grabbed my bag by the door and skipped to the truck painfully cautious of the forest surrounding my house. I knew I was fairly safe with the pack hunting Victoria but they couldn't be everywhere at once. But now they also had to keep an eye on the people out in the depth of the forest hunting the pack; the one thing that could save them from the supernatural force of vampires.

This meant that Victoria had a higher chance of getting to me, while the pack was distracted. I could end it now. Just walk out into the forest, wander around for a little. She'd get to me eventually, so why delay the process? Why should Jake get hurt or anyone else for that matter, they did nothing wrong. Why was my life more valuable than theirs? The truth was that my life wasn't as precious.

The people that had gone missing were someone's son, brother or father someone's sister, aunt or mother. No one was reliant on me. Charlie would be upset but he lived the without me before. He could live without me again. And as for my mother I doubt she would care at all. She had Phil; she had someone there for her.

I pulled into the car park at school and it felt like all eyes were on me. _They probably were!_ Ever since the Cullens left, I had been the schools hot gossip topic. I thought the little sniggers and stares would die down after a while but I guess the Cullens were unforgettable. Ignoring the groups of girls whispering my name I trudged to my locker were Angela and Jessica rushed towards me.

"Morning." They both greeted rather sullenly.

"What's wrong?" I inquired, shoving books into my locker so my bag wasn't heavy with books I didn't need until later.

"Nothing." Jessica supplied rather a little rushed.

"Uh-huh." I groaned, shutting my locker. They both looked at each other and then back to me, leaning against the lockers. I knew the looks they had just shared and without meaning to they had just spoken a thousand words.

"Lauren." I stated confidently. I had just about had enough of her. She'd taken an unhealthy interest in my life lately and it was getting on my last nerve. She was going out of her way to make my life harder than it already was. Believe me there was no fucking need and it was really starting to piss me off. Maybe I could channel my lost inhibitions and slap her like I had squared up to the pack alpha and slapped the most volatile wolf of the bunch. In my books that made me a badass and I sniggered maliciously at he looks on the girls' faces.

Shaking my head at their confused and slightly concerned expressions, I pushed past them to my first class just down the hall.

"Bellam wait!" Angela called from behind me. "Don't take it to heart." She offered supportively when I turned round to look at them. I nodded my head mutely and made my way to English. I class the, unfortunately, shared with Lauren.

I walked in the classroom buzzing with excitement. Everyone was huddled in the middle of the room around a girl who animatedly explained something to them. The people I could see had mirth shinning in their eyes.

"Oh, hey Bella." Lauren's voice announced laced with amusement. The whole class stopped listening with rapt attention to Rose and turned to me instead.

Seventeen pairs of eyes flickered between me and Lauren expectantly. Though I wasn't quite sure what they were expecting to happen. So I zoned in on my desk and took a step towards it. But Lauren stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

"So, Bella. What have you been doing lately?" She started.

"Nothing that concerns you." I coated my voice with as much venom as I could conjure.

"Come on, Bella, how did you do it?" She whispered through her sweetheart, pink lips.

"Do what?" I asked genuinely confused and what she wanted to know.

I took a step back because she was now invading my private space. But she followed, "You know what!" She placed a demanding hand on my shoulder. It was funny really; she was trying to dominate me. I looked down at her perfectly manicured French tip hand with disgust. Then back up at her make up caked face with the same contempt. I shook her hand of my body and tried to step around her but she was now flanked by her two minions; deadly smiles adorning each of their faces.

But when I didn't speak, someone did for me. "You and the res hunk." Rose's sickly sweet voice projected throughout the classroom. _What? Now I'm really confused; _which probably reflected on my face.

"C'mon Bella, don't play dumb!" Lauren turned towards Rose, smirking. "We saw you yesterday. How did you do it? How did you go from depressed to getting up close and personal with a native?" She spat, stepping towards me suddenly. _Native? Jake!_ He was with me last night, dropped me home after the bonfire.

"What's the secret, eh? They never give a second glance at us" Rose leaned forward glaring me up and down. By us she meant place faces. Jake had explained to me before that most natives don't associate with pale faces, but I didn't know why. They were fine with me, but maybe that was because Charlie was friends with Billy and Harry? The only person who seemed to have a problem with me was Paul. "What did you do to get his attention?" she glowered at me crossing her skinny little arms across her huge boobs.

"_I_ didn't do anything" bitches could take a fucking hike.

"Right, you expect us to believe that? What's so special about you anyway? First the Cullens and now the natives?" Lauren backed me up against the wall. "You must be doing something?" We were now toe to toe. She leant into me further and brought her mouth to my ear. "You must be a good fuck." She breathed.

"Not everyone is a whore like you Lauren. I have substance; I don't need to get on my knees to prove my worth." I laughed in her disgruntled face and pushed her back, away from me and stormed out the classroom before the lesson had even started.

Lately I felt worthless, I felt useless. I couldn't do anything, for anyone. I was the person who was responsible for all those death by the hands of Victoria. And all I could do was sit idle while he people I loved fought day and night to keep me safe, keep everyone safe. I had to help them and I need to do it now before anyone else lost their life. So I hoped into my truck as the late stragglers to school filed into the building and I drove to La Push.

_Just stay at home._

_Don't go into the woods, okay?_

_Everything will be fine._

_You'll be okay, we'll be okay._

_Don't worry._

Lies. It was all lies. I couldn't stay at home anymore, I had to do something. They weren't handling it, otherwise she would be caught already and they shouldn't have been seen either. I could help but worry, worry about the pack. Worry about Jake, worry about Charlie. It wasn't okay that everyone risked their lives for a problem I had brought upon them. It wasn't okay that other people were being punished for a decision I had made. I had to find a way to stop her, and she would only stop once she had me. I had to go into the woods to save the lives of the people I love.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I pulled into the trial just before the border and parked my truck behind some thick foliage. Once I was satisfied that it truck couldn't be seen from the highway, I dug into the glove box and pulled out my red pocket knife. Charlie had given it to me because it had a little canister of pepper spray built in. said it would keep his mind ad rest if he knew I was carrying this for protection. Little did he know that I needed protection from something that was out of the human realm; and pepper spray wasn't a useful defence tool. But this little thing that I was now twirling between my fingers was going to be used as protection. Just not for me, but it would offer protection for everyone else. Forks would be safe, La Push would be safe and there will be no one orphan babies.

Taking in a deep breath, I studied the forest around me. Everything was eerie quiet and I didn't like it one bit. There were no birds, no insects, no squirrels. There was just a whole bunch of nothing. Which I suppose was great for me. The quiet signalled that she was somewhere close by. At least I hoped it was her and prayed it wasn't the pack doing; scaring all the animals into hiding.

There were several trails leading off to different directions, I didn't know where any of the led so I choose at random. I figured my best bet to some across her was off trial but I didn't want to be too close to civilisation that I ended up coming out the forest and not delving deeper into it. That was just counter-productive. So I decided to stick to the trail until I felt I was deep enough into the woods and then go off the route and deeper in to the green abyss. I was bound to come across her at one point or another. Hopefully I didn't bump into the pack or the trackers with guns and fucking tranquillisers.

I had been walking for a while and I knew it couldn't be past noon but still the light was poor under the canopy of the tress. And when I looked up to see how out the lights out I noticed the thick black clouds covering the sky. _Typical!_ It was about the fucking rain on me, but that wasn't any good. My scent would be washed away and there would be no way of tracking me. I remember that Jake had said that they couldn't petrol in stormy weather because the wind and the rain distributed and diluted Victoria's scent; so why wouldn't it be the same for me, right?

What I need was a concentration of my scent and this is where my pocket knife came in handy. I looked around the forest and found a log to rest on for a little while. My legs were turning to jelly and I had rolled my ankle a few times on the uneven forest floor.

I pulled the knife out my pocket and placed it in the ground in front of me. I fought to remember why I was doing this. I fought to psyche myself up to what I had thought of doing. And I _was _doing this. I was doing this for everyone that loved someone they lost because of me. I was doing this so no one else would get hurt.

I rolled up my sleeves, I picked up the cold metal and placed it against my head, willing myself not to be weak. _I could do this, it could all be over._ And that was all the encouragement I needed to give myself. It would all be over.

It was all still quiet, so I still had hope that she would find me. All I could here were the sounds of my breathing and the howl of the wind through the trees. I brought my hands out in front of me and decided the best way to do this.

If I go straight up it would probably be fast. But the thing is I needed slow and steady not fast and furious. So my best bet was across. It would give me enough time and she could definitely find me in that time frame. But I guess it all had to do with her location and the direction of the wind. All I wanted was for her to find me and this to be over. So without delay, I placed the knife to my pale wrist and sliced. _Don't faint. Don't faint. Don't faint. _I chanted and switched the knife to my left hand and cut across my opposite wrist. I watched as red liquid trickled out of the cuts and on to the dirt near my feet. The blood flow from both wrists was decent. But it could be better, so I flexed both my wrist until the cuts were wider. I whimpered as the pain sky rocketed and I suppressed the scream that was dying to be let out. But I had to be strong and carry on. It had to end and it had to end today. Either Victoria found me and killed me herself or I would bleed to death waiting for her.

I sat for a few minutes listening for any sounds of movement, but nothing. However the next sound I heard was fucking unexpected. My phone vibrated in my pocket. I thought I had left the fucker in my truck. _How the hell do I have a signal strong enough to receive calls?_ Maybe I wasn't far enough in the forest yet? But how was the possible, I had been walking for years.

But by the time I had pulled out my phone, the call had rung out and probably went to voice-mail. I wasn't about to answer the bloody thing but I was curious to see who was calling me in the middle of the day. Everyone believed I was at school, so who could it be? I was shocked to see Jake's name flash on the screen. _What did he want? Was someone hurt? Was it Charlie?_ Stupid little man-child had left me a voice-mail message, convenient because I wouldn't need to call him back. _Amateur._

"Bella, just to update you, everyone is fine. Call me when you get this" _Oh thank god. _Nothing had happened yet. Which was good but it could all go tits up at any point. I had to move, keep moving so my scent was spread out wide; meaning she had a better chance of finding me. I was getting a little light headed which meant she was running out of time.

So I got up from my perch on the broken tree and made my way deeper into the woods. Or that was where I thought I was going. But I was surprised to smell the air around me take on a salty taste. _The sea_. The fragrance got stronger and stronger. The sound of the waves crashing against rocks got louder and louder until I found myself on the cliffs by the sea. I had fucking navigated myself to the cliffs. _Nice one Bella._ Walk straight into a dead end, why not?

I sauntered over to the edge to see the waves crashing against the rocky cliff face. It was kind of beautiful. The sky was an angry grey, the waves down below rolled violently towards the shore; both equally aggressive in tone. The drop into the ocean was positively fatal for anyone attempting to dive today. Looking out towards first beach, I couldn't see a soul. Not even any surfers? Nobody, except me to admire the hostility of the weather and it was peaceful.

Until I heard her

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Her voice made the hairs on the back on my neck stand to attention. _This is it_.

Turing around, I scanned the small clearing for her form, but it wasn't there.

"Up here!" She chimed.

And she was up in the fucking tree, like she was afraid of something. And then I heard it, just as I was about to ask her why she was so far away. Well felt it first, to be exact. The ground shook the the distinctive thump of paws hitting the dirt. And it was. _Who was it? Jake? Sam? Embry?_ I didn't really want to know, I just wanted it to be over. So I extended my hands out in front of me and pulled up the sleeves of my bloodied jacket.

"Let's end this little game, shall we? Either you kill me, or they kill you!" I called to her, even flexed my wrist as extra incentive and she bit down on the bait.

Her curly red hair bounced as she straightened herself from the crouch she had landed in, on the forest floor. The rags of her clothes flailed helplessly in the wind.

"I wanted you to die slowly, but I guess this'll have to do." She shrugged her bony shoulders and sprinted towards me just as a grey wolf appeared from the thicket; snarling and growling viciously. I didn't know enough about the packs wolf forms to tell who it was. But I knew just enough to know that it was either Paul or Embry. Guess it didn't really matter now that it was as good as over.

I was hurtling towards the cold black ocean the next second while a pained howl rung out through La Push. The sudden drop had pushed me over the edge, literally, and I was fighting to stay wake. However the darkness didn't take over like I had expected and I felt the distinct burn of salt in my wrists as I hit the water. I was waiting for the ice cold hands of Victoria to finish me off; waited for it to all be over. I looked out across the ocean, under water, and saw the fiery hair of the last thing I would see alive. But before she could get to me the dark spots that littered my vision merged together. And that was it.

It was all over.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	13. Chapter 12

**(Paul's** **POV)**

_'What the fuck is going on? Whatever it is, it better be fucking worth getting me out of bed.' _I had just come in from patrolling twenty minute ago. The leech had me chase her all the way back to the Canadian border again, but this time, I was alone. Embry had stayed back just in case she did a double take and back tracked towards La Push. It was irritating me how she was always one step ahead of us.

_'Bella called. Charlie's out in the woods tracking the pack.' _The baby Alpha roared.

_'What?!' _There were several growls and snarls that projected through our minds.

_'Embry, Paul! What the hell happened last night?' _Sam ordered us to explain.

_'I don't know! I was chasing the fucker to Canada. Ask him!' _I turned my muzzle towards the smaller grey wolf, behind me.

_'I sounded the alarm and patrolled La Push like you ordered me to.' _He whimpered, bowing his head to the ground.

_'Then how the fuck does Charlie know we exist?!' _Sam yelled.

_'Maybe Bella told him?' _Jared's wolf shrugged nonchalantly.

_'Watch who you blame.' _I sneered at the chocolate wolf, baring my teeth at him. _'You might be my best friend, but that won't stop me if you choose to accuse my imprint of betraying us.' _

_'Oh! Now she's your imprint? What happened to not wanting her?' _He retorted with an equally vicious sneer of his own.

_'Enough! This is not the time for spats. So, get your shit together and focus!' _Sam rose to his full height. _'I refuse to lose anyone else to this red-headed bitch. She's going down today.'_

_'Jared and Embry, spy on the trackers. Jake and Paul, run the perimeter. Make sure you get the full ten mile diameter around the trackers. Don't hesitate!' _Sam placed orders. _'If she gets anywhere near the humans, I want her dead. Don't sound the alarm under any circumstance, otherwise.' _

We spread out. I took the outer position and ran in sync with the rest of the determined werewolves. We had to end this soon because it was getting pretty much out of hand. With the humans tracking us and all, it was a great risk. We kept our noses in the air, hoping to come across the scent of the search party; it didn't take long to locate them.

They had set up a base near the outskirts of the forest, where the leech had attacked the couple last night. Jared and Embry stayed back with Sam, while Jake and I spread out to opposite ends of the perimeter. Making sure not to cross paths with each other and paying attention to any new scent trails, yet there was no new trails of scent. All I could smell was the old stench of the red-head and the pack.

The whole pack remained focused on the task while Jake was busy relaying the conversation he had with Bella this morning. I felt sadness wash over me each time he got to the end of the phone call; when he had raised his voice at her blatant lack of confidence in the pack. We understood her anxiety, but it was pretty demoralising when she constantly reminded us that we weren't capable of catching this leech. Frankly, the pack was getting sick of it. We didn't need her help to recap and reflect on our failure as protectors.

_'Green blob, brown blob, brown, brown, green, green. Oh hey, look! A brown blob!' _Jake was clearly in need of a break, he was getting bored.

_'Jacob Black, focus! You're distracting everyone else!' _Sam commanded through our conjoined minds, and we all involuntarily buckled under the Alpha's tone. _'Phase out and clear you mind, pup. Call Bella, apologize or something! But spare us, it's hard enough to concentrate without you incessantly disrupting the rest of us!' _Sam shouted. _'You have ten minutes. Paul, you stay alert.' _And with that, Jake phased with a glorifying shimmer.

It was peaceful for a few minutes, but then Jake phased back in. Apparently, he called Bella but couldn't get through to her. Concluding that she was at school, he pushed his emotions towards the back of his mind and for once, he had his whole head in the game. It's about time!

_'Jake, you got something?' _I queried, because all of a sudden, he overwhelmed me with fear and confusion.

_'She must have slipped through when I was on the phone!' _He panicked, his voice rung through our minds. We all snarled at his carelessness.

_'Where is she headed?' _Sam asked, our hackles raised in anticipation for more information.

_'I don't know, give me a minute.' _Jake put his nose to the ground and sniffed. _Nothing. _Raising his muzzle, he scented out the leech in the air. _'North!' _Great, the bitch was headed straight for the trackers.

_'You better fucking catch up to her before she gets within a mile of the men, Jacob.' _Oh shit, the Alpha just used his birth name. _'Paul, bring up the rear and I'll meet you in the middle!'_

And so the chase was on.

Jake was gaining on her. We could all see the distinctive red color of her hair. Sam was headed straight for her, while I tried to catch up to Jake. I was still a little ways away when the red-head suddenly stopped in her tracks. Jake barrelled towards her, jaws snapping open towards her stone head. But she changed directions, just as Jake launched himself in the air. Up ahead, Sam, the midnight colored wolf, hurtled towards the vampire as Jake got his footing back and before long, they were both hot on her heels. I could see both wolves in the distance, battling to catch up, but the damn vamp kept her pace.

_'Why is she going this way?!' _Jake roared, as he lunged at her again but failed.

_'Who the fuck knows? At least she's not heading towards the trackers anymore!' _Sam growled. The leech had cut through an area.

_'Keep on her!' _I instructed them.

_'Shut up!' _They both yelled out in frustration. Jake and Sam were both headed straight towards a wide conifer. Splitting at the last moment, both connected with each other on the other side of the damn tree.

I caught up to them just in time to see them lying on the forest floor, tangled in each other's furry forms. I zoned in on the leech's legs and propelled myself forward.

_'No! Oh no, no!' _Jake cried.

_'What the fuck is wrong?' _I snarled at him. He had to speak up!

_'Bella!' _Now I was just outright confused, making me slow my pace. I couldn't think about my imprint and kill a vampire at the same time. My wolf needed things to be prioritised and Bella was always at the top of the list.

_'What the hell do you mean 'Bella'?' _I questioned.

_'Blood...the scent of her blood. She's after her. Take her out now, Paul!' _Sam ordered, but that was easier said than done. **_End her! _**_My wolf shouted at me._

Channelling my wolf, I willed myself to go fast but she still had a steady lead. We were still headed east when all of a sudden the bitch leaped into a nearby tree. _**No! **_

I skidded to a halt next to the tree she had disappeared into, but she wasn't there anymore. I circled the tree and lifted my head into the air and tried scented her out. But I got nothing; I was never good at tracking especially in stormy weather, like today. I tried again but I still came up with nothing. So I waited precious seconds for the two other wolves to show up. Sam could scent her out no problem.

_'Faster!_' I growled at both of them to hurry.

Sam slipped to a stop next to me and lifted his muzzle and sniffed._ 'West, she's headed west towards the cliffs.'_ He panted out, trying to catch his breath. I didn't wait for them to start running together. I had already wasted so much time waiting for them to catch up to me; I wasn't about to waste anymore. Not when it concerned my imprint. The air around me was beginning to become saturated with salt, indicating I was getting nearer to the cliffs. I fucking hoped the red head was there, because I hadn't come across her scent on the ground. I just hoped I was speeding in the right direction.

_'She hasn't changed her route.'_ Sam reassured me, but was that really what I wanted to hear. If she was on route to the cliffs did that mean Bella was on those cliffs? And I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to know the answer let alone know why we could smell her blood.

I finally caught the stench of leech lingering in the air as I hurtled towards the cliffs, praying Bella was okay. But then I heard them.

"Let's end this little game, shall we? Either you kill me, or they kill you!" Bella's voice invited Victoria to take her life. _**No, oh god, no!**_ My wolf growled at the suggestion, causing me to release a vicious growl of my own.

Breaking through the foliage I saw Victoria sprint towards my imprint just as I was about to take a chunk of her shoulder off. I helplessly watched on as the red head pulled Bella off the cliff by her cut wrist. _She had cut her wrists!_ An agonising howl ripped through my wolf and radiated outwards.

_'No, no, no. Bella!'_ Jake screamed in my head. I couldn't jump after her as a wolf so I forced myself to fight my anger and fear and phase back into a human.

I pushed up onto my feet and jumped off the cliff where Bella had landed in the water. White bubbles marked where the leech had entered the water, but thankfully there were quite a bit away; maybe just giving me enough time to get to Bella. I connected with the ice cold water what a violent splash. And as soon I was under water I tried to find my imprint but I could see her anywhere. Sam and Jake both jumped in moments later and tried just as hard to find her. The murky water was no match for me as my sharp eye sight caught onto a figure floating directly underneath me. I kicked my legs and propelled myself towards my imprint without a second glance for the leech or the other wolves in the choppy sea.

As soon as I could grab a hold of her, I pulled her weightless body to my warm one. I kicked my legs as hard and fast as I could to get us to the surface. Breaking through the water I gasped for air, something I noticed Bella wasn't doing. Fearing the worst I swam towards the shore, taking care not let Bella's face sink into the water. As soon as I was able to stand, I cradled her limp body to my chest and ran for dry land. Her body was an unhealthy temperature and I wasn't fully convinced that her heart was beating. But she was shivering so I had good reason to believe that she was still alive, even if only barely.

I put her down on the sand and listen for breathing, it wasn't there. I felt for a pulse, it wasn't there and she had even stopped shivering. _No, no, no._

"No, Bella, you can't die on me." My voice coarse with emotion, I breathed into her cold body, and watched as her chest rose and fell with the air. Placing my hands in the middle of her chest I pushed down; light enough to not break her but just enough to force her heart to beat. But as I pushed down on her chest the cuts on her wrists would bleed out every time. I had no other option but to stop, I couldn't have her lose any more blood. I sat back on my hunches and stared down at my still imprint. Her face was relaxed, her eyelids closed over her chocolate eyes; eyes that I might not see again. I ran my hands over her cold little body squeezing my fingers into her cold flesh now and again. I leant down and nuzzled into her neck and took in deep calming breaths. I kept kissing her flesh where her pulse should have been and willed it to come back, but of course it wasn't. "Please don't do this, baby."

I felt Jake and Sam collapse down next to her body. Jake sobbed uncontrollably and Sam rested his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it in a comforting gesture. I didn't need his sympathy; I needed him to save my imprint. I shrugged his hand of and placed it directly over her cut wrist and ordered him to keep the pressure on her wrists.

"I need you to call an ambulance!" I directed at Jacobs shaking form. He reached into the pocket of his cut off and pulled out his phone. I tired compressions again and this time she wasn't bleeding as much.

"Fuck." Jake growled out.

"You just jumped into the Pacific ocean, Jake! Of course your fucking phone doesn't work!" Sam shouted at the pup. "Mrs Kenzie lives on the line trial, two minutes away!" Sam growled at him. I breathed into her again.

"Please, Jake." I pleaded, as the tear-stricken boy walked backwards and towards the direction of Mrs Kenzie's. "Help her, please." I begged him not able to take my eyes of her motionless body. "I can't lose her. I-I can't." I choked out. He knew exactly what I was feeling because he loved her just as much as I did. Jake hurtled down the line trail to call an ambulance, which left Sam and I with Bella.

"She's going to be fine." He whispered out.

"Sam, she's not breathing. I can't even feel her pulse." I ground out just before I stopped to breathe some life into her body. "I didn't agree to this. I didn't agree to her death! I don't want to be the one to test out the 'what happens to the imprinter after the imprint dies' theory!" I shouted pushing down on her chest. "You can't die. Please come back to me," I cried, my shoulders shaking. "I'll do better, I'll be better. Just…just please come back."

"I'll take over." Sam offered but I shook my head at him. "I'll do it." He said more firmly. "The ambulance will be here soon and you don't have any clothes on Paul. Come on, let me take over for a little bit." I hadn't agreed but as soon as her chest deflated Sam had let go of her wrists and started pushing down on her chest; giving me no option but to let him take over.

I hauled on my wet cut offs that were tied to my ankle and kneeled beside her head. Pulling her arms above her head I squeezed her cuts closed. Her hair was wet and stuck to her forehead, so I nudge it out the way with my nose and buried my head in her soaked tresses. I turned my face into her head and breathed in her scent, tainted with the sickly stench of leech and the sea. I thought past the other smells and focused on her citrus, orange, fragrance. I cherished each breath I was taking and hoped it wasn't the last time I would smell her.

"I'm sorry, so sorry I was such a dick. But baby, I'll change, I _was_ changing. I need you to fight, Bella. I need you alive, god, _please!_" I choked into her hair as I heard sirens in the distance approaching fast. "You'll be okay." I reassured her as Jake fell to his knees beside me.

The ambulance stopped a few yards away for us, lights flashing. The doors to the van were pushed open and two men stepped out from the back. "We'll take it from here." The brown haired man took over from Sam but I refused to let her go.

"Paul." Sam pried my hands off Bella and pulled me back to allow room for the paramedics to get to her. Jake had gotten up and was now pacing a well into the wet sand as he hovered over the EMT's. "Jake, relax. She'll be fine." Sam spouted the same shit as earlier, but this time she was in capable hands and not a pair of inexperienced wolves; so I chose to believe him.

"Unconscious, not breathing, no pulse." The blonde haired guy spoke this time and pulled out a pair a scissors as the other man bandaged Bella's wrist. The blonde guy pulled the hem of her shirt and cut through the fabric right to the neck; exposing the creamy skin of her entire torso. We all gasped at the sight of her hip bones jutting out and at the fact that we could see the spaces in-between her ribs, were her skin was stretched taught and sunken in. The blonde guy had started compression on her bruised chest.

"How long has she been like this?" The brown haired man asked us.

"15 minutes, maybe?" Sam replied when I didn't answer.

"And how did she end up like this?"

"We don't know," Jake shuddered out knowing fine well how she _ended_ up like this.

"Okay, ready Jeff." The blonde guy nodded to Jeff. He opened up a pack with a machine and a couple of pads; and stuck them to her body.

"Charging…clear." Jeff stated. And the next thing I see is Bella's torso lift off the sand from the shock. "No pulse. Charging…clear!" And it happened again. But this is time I heard her heart jolt to life; it was faint but it was there. And then it was gone again.

"Alan! Adrenaline." He shouted to the man rummaging in the back of the truck. He rushed out toward us holding onto a red box. Alan crouched down next to her and opened out the box filled with syringes. Putting on gloves, he motioned for the blonde guy to lift his hands off Bella's chest. Counting down five ribs, he steadied the needle between her ribs and pushed the needle through; he depressed the plunger and withdrew the needle. Bella's eye flew open as she gasped for air and sputtered out water. This time her heart beat was stronger and she was breathing on her own. _She was going to be fine_. I sobbed with relief as her eyes darted around and settled on Jake, who had now stopped pacing and was staring down at her with the relief.

She was transferred onto a bed and put into the back of the ambulance as I watched them take her away. The weight of what could have happened crashed down on my shoulders, knocking me to my knees. I sobbed into my hands as Sam, my friend, wrapped me in an embrace. I cried until I had no more tears left to shed, until I wasn't shaking anymore.

"Where is she?" I growled out and pushed Sam away, furiously wiping away the tears.

"Over there," He pointed behind me. I turned around to see that she was being held down by Jared and Embry, just shy of the tree line. I sprinted towards the leech, my chest puffing with the violence of my breathing, trying to remain as calm as possible. I nodded to both of them and they got what I was communicating. Simultaneously they ripped off both of her arms and threw them in a pile further into the woods. The fucker screeched as I stepped over her and put my foot in the middle of her chest.

"I'd show you the meaning of a slow death. But you threatened my mate…" The shaking had become unbearable and I phased right on top of her. I lowered my sharp teeth to her neck and bit down hard. Her wails could probably be heard for miles but I couldn't care less. I jerked my head and it was all over. I phased back to do the honours.

"Fucking finally!" Jared exclaimed exacerbated.

I lit the pieces of the leech on fire and took off running towards the hospital. I needed to see her. I need to touch her. I just needed her.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary (I cried!) **


	14. Chapter 13

**Paul's POV)**

_'Planning on walking around nude?' _Jared teased. I had been over the edge since Bella was admitted into the hospital. Everything pissed me off and phasing came easy. The fact that Jacob had been missing for three days now didn't help the situation at all. No one had seen him since he climbed into the back of the ambulance truck with Bella. I had trusted him with my imprint and when I got to the fucking hospital, he wasn't with her; and he hadn't phased either.

_'Shut up.' _I growled at my best friend, snagging some clothes from Jake's clothing line as I ran past his house. _'The fuck you want?' _Pushing my legs to run as fast as they could, I made my way to Forks.

_'Trying to start a conversation with my best friend? I'm on babysitting duty.' _He huffed, dumping himself on the forest floor near Quil's house. We could hear him shuffling about in his living room, watching a game. _'You think he's going to phase anytime soon?' _Jared asked me.

_'If you're sick of following him around, force him to phase!' _I grumbled out as I approached the hospital. _'It's going to happen anyway, so might as well pick a fight. Push him around a little, mention Jake and Embry. But for Christ's sake run it by Sam first.' _I growled at him and phased out.

I walked through the hospital car park and received a few odd looks from the people around e. It was visiting time and the car park was full of people holding flowers, cards and chocolates. That shit annoyed me; what good were flowers or balloons to a dying person? Harry's room was filled to the brim with daffodils and lilies and the man had just suffered a heart attack in the middle of the woods. So what the fuck were flowers any good for?

I popped into Harry's room, just to see how he's doing and to ask a worried Sue if she needed anything. Harry was on the tribe's council, so paying him a visit on behalf of the pack before visiting Bella was a courtesy. Harry was in bad condition and he was getting worse with every passing day. The doctors had told us that it had taken them far too long to get him to the hospital, which was true. There was no way anybody could have gotten him to the hospital faster with him being in the forest and all. The pack had been running after the leech when he had fallen ill, so no one was around to help the trackers when Harry had his heart attack. Nobody had seen Seth or Leah for days and it was starting to worry Sam and Emily. Emily had said that people needed family at times like this, but the Clearwater kids wouldn't even come out of their home to see their father - let alone anyone else.

I walked past the nursing station where Bella was being kept and I didn't miss the hungry eyes of all those young nurses scanning my body as I strolled by them to get to Bella's room. I would talk to them about Bella when they came around, but other than that, I didn't even acknowledge their presence. The first time the pack had visited her, they were surprised. They noticed that I didn't even care when they came into the room to hit on the guys. Sam had rewarded me with a slap on the back, with a huge grin plastered on his face.

I wasn't interested in other women anymore. Plain and simple as that. The only one I had eyes for was the dying girl laying on the hospital bed before me.

I was leaning against the closed door for a few minutes, taking in her presence. Her hair was tied into a practical braid on the side of her head. She had huge, black bags under her eyes; she hadn't been sleeping according to the nurse I had spoken to yesterday. I guess she hadn't slept well last night either.

I followed the line of her sight to a little black spot painted on the white hospital wall opposite her window. The fluorescent lights above her bed didn't do anything to conceal the paler-than-normal color of her alabaster skin.

She had her sheet pulled up, tucked under her arms, which were crossed tightly over her chest. I pushed off the door and walked over to the foot of her bed. I trailed my hand from her bandaged foot to her calf and then over her thighs and settled it on her lower back as I moved closer to her head. She hadn't flinched away from me like she had done every other time I touched her. And as per usual, I rubbed her back soothingly and sat down on top of her bed. She didn't greet me back when I said hi and she didn't snatch her hand back when I pried it from its hold on her opposite arm and settled it in mine. I rubbed circles on her knuckles as I talked to her about patrol and the pack, but she wouldn't let me hear her sweet voice.

No one could get her to talk. Not even Charlie, not me and she wouldn't even speak to any of the hospital staff. No one had heard her speak since Monday. I looked around the room and saw that someone had left a small bag in the corner of her room. When I went over to inspect the foreign object, I found that it had Bella's clothes in it. _I guess Charlie had already visited her today. _He normally came by to see her during the later visiting hours after his shift down at the station, I figured he was on night shift and had come in this morning. The soft knock on the door alerted me to another presence in the room, when I turned to see who it was, I wasn't surprised to see a young nurse batting her lashes at me.

"Hey there, is there anything you need?" She asked me with a smile.

"Has Bella had anything to eat yet? I was told she hadn't eaten since she got here." I walked over to the door so that I wasn't disturbing my imprint.

"She had a slice of toast this morning. But other than that, nothing. She hasn't been sleeping much either and she still isn't talking."

I nodded y head at the girl with a frown on my face.

"Do you know when I can take her home?" I asked, hoping she would say soon, but somewhere deep inside my heart, I knew that it wasn't possible.

"Unfortunately, we can't discharge her yet. She needs a psychiatric evaluation, which we can't do until she starts speaking. The doctors have decided to move her to another ward if she doesn't open up by tomorrow." She spoke, her voice low.

"Where will she be moved to?"

"The psychiatric ward, upstairs." She replied. I was about to argue that Bella wasn't mad, but why would this person believe me? I couldn't tell her why Bellwa was acting this way or why she hadn't spoken for three days. How was Bella supposed to be evaluated when she couldn't tell anyone the truth?I She couldn't sit down and talk to just anybody about her problem; about vampires and werewolves and if she did they would lock her up forever. And I couldn't take that.

"Can I shower her?" I asked, expectantly.

"Erm…sure, if she'll let you." The nurse said, looking towards Bella's limp figure lying between the sheets on her bed. "There are towels in the cupboard under the sink." And with, that she turned on her heels and closed the door behind her.

I walked over to the side of Bella's bed and kneeled down in front of her, so I was blocking her chocolate eyes from seeing the black spot on the wall and forcing her to look at me instead.

Titling my head to the side and I stroked the hair on her head and murmured, "Bella, do you want to have a shower?" But she didn't say anything, all she did was blink at me and furrow her brows a little. "It'll make you feel better, I promise." And this time, she turned in her bed so her back was to me. _Huh._

"Bella, either you get up now or I'll drag you out of this bed and shower you myself!" I said, more firmly this time. I jumped to my feet, but she didn't move. "That's it!" I growled out and ripped the sheet from her body. The back of her gown was open, revealing her back. I forced her arms under her form and lifted her to my chest in one swift moment. It felt good having her closer to me again.

She was lower down than I expected her to be, so I pulled her further up so her head was resting on my shoulder and I marched us to the bathroom, attached to the room. I kicked the door open and closed it behind us. I toed off my sneakers and pushed them over to the far side of the room. Climbing into the tub, I untied the bottom of her gown and placed her down with her back against the side of the tub. I got out of the bath and took the shower head that was above us, turning it away from Bella's shivering body until I turned it on and adjusted the temperature to how hot I thought she could tolerate.

Putting the shower back in its holder, I knelt down behind her and undressed her making sure I didn't see anything I shouldn't see. I threw the gown over my shoulder and stood to turn the head of the shower towards Bella and I watched the water hitting her skin until she stopped shivering. Walking out to her room, I grabbed the bag Charlie had left her and was relieved to see that he had the decency to pack her a little toiletry bag with shampoo, soap and girlie shit. I grabbed her shirt and some jeans and placed them on the bed so she could change into them when she was clean. I didn't like seeing her in a hospital gown let alone have her smelling like one too. Walking back into the bathroom armed with shampoo and soap, I knelt behind her and placed my hands under the stream of the shower. I unravelled her braid and lathered her hair with her shampoo as gently as my massive hands would let me. I crooned to her the whole way through the shower, murmuring soothing words as I skimmed my soapy hands over her tight little body, leaving out her most intimate parts. I took a hold of both of her hands clasped around her knees that were pulled to her chest, and turned them over so they were wrist side up. She had five sutures lining the red edges of the cuts up so they could heal properly. I made sure not to get any soap into the slashes and placed them back on her knees.

Turning off the water, I stepped back into the tub and wrapped her in a towel and brought her to her feet; I tucked the towel under her arms. But it only fell to the middle of her thighs, that wouldn't protect her modesty when I carried her back to the room. Grabbing another towel, I wrapped it around her middle and secured it tight at her hip. It was only when I looked to her face for the first time since she turned her back on me that I found she had been crying. Her eyes were blood shot and she scrunched her nose up now and again as she sniffled. I cradled her face in my hands and wiped the tears rolling down her face furiously, frowning at her.

"Hey, what's wrong Bella?" I asked frantically, skimming my hand over her body making sure I hadn't hurt her. "Please tell me what's wrong. I can't fix it until you tell he what's wrong, baby." I said kissing her wrists, thinking they were hurting her. But she still wasn't speaking, in fact she sobbed harder at my attempt at comforting her. "I'm sorry I shouted at you. I didn't mean it, I promise. Please tell me what's wrong?" Giving up trying to get her to speak I swiped my arm under her knees and pulled her to my chest again. But this time she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and pushed her face into the crook of my neck. I pulled the bathroom door open and walked into the bedroom to dry her off.

"I need…" She croaked out half a sentence as her lips brushed against my neck, stopping me dead in my tracks.

"What do you need baby?" I asked lowering my head and kissing her shoulder.

"I need him." She let out a heart clenching sob which had me crumbling inside. My heart ached and my chest constricted from the gut wrenching sounds coming from her shaking form. I sat down in one of the chairs beneath the window with her lying across my lap because I didn't trust myself on my feet. Her head was still buried in my neck and I could feel the hot tears running down her cheek and onto my neck.

"Who do you need?" I asked, although I knew who she was talking about, I couldn't help but want to hear her voice again. I rocked her back and forth as I waited for her to say his name and I would sit here until she said it. I pulled her away from me and adjusted her in my lap. Pulling the towel around her hip loose, I shifter her so she was straddling me and I could see her eyes again. Seeing her wet hear stick to her forehead as she cried took me straight back to the day I nearly lost her. "Who do you want?" I pushed a little harder for an answer this time; if she wasn't going to talk they would take her away from me. The thought made my stomach clench with sickness making me hold her tighter against my body. I ran my hands up and down her back just to placate myself that she was still here, with me, where she belongs.

I lowered my head till my forehead was resting on hers. Her eyes were closed as she sobbed out the answer. "Jake." _That's my girl._

"I'll bring him to you." I sighed with relief. "But you have to promise that you'll eat something other than a slice of toast." I murmured against her nodding head. I found my hand resting on the skin of the inside of her creamy thigh that wasn't covered by the towel. "I'll bring him by later." I told her as I stood us up, deposited her on her feet. And once I was certain she wouldn't fall when I let her waist go, I left to go find her MIA best friend.

"She's showered, she's talking and she'll eat." I called to the nurses sitting at their desks while sprinting past. But as soon as I stepped outside the hospital I was shunted back to reality. Jake was missing, meaning we couldn't find him.

So how the fuck was I going to bring him to Bella when nobody could find him?!

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	15. Chapter 14

Running around the back of the hospital, I stripped down and phased hoping to head to Billy's to see if he had come home yet. But as soon as I transformed, I was hit with the most disturbing image I had ever seen.

_'Where the fuck is my dick?!' _A snapshot of a dark, third limb flashed through the pack mind and permanently etching itself into our memories.

_'It...BURNS!' _Jared whimpered, hiding his head behind his paws.

_'Man, I could have gone my entire life without see your thing, Quil. _Embry laughed humoroulessly.

_'Calm down!' _Sam commanded the pack, doing wonders for my anxiety. _'What's wrong, Paul? Is Bella okay?'_

_'Yeah, she's fine bu-' _I was rudely cut off by the lastest member of the pack.

_'I'm a wolf! I have fur! I have huge paws! Yet I have no cock!' _He had now resorted to running around in circles, trying to see his penis. _'Oh shit!' _He screamed, tripping over his paws and landing in a pile on the forest floor. I had made it to where the pack had gathered, just a little while away from Quil's house.

_'You finally phased.' _I let out a relieved breath. Thank fuck for that, now I didn't have to babysit the idiot and could spend some more time with my girl.

_'Your girl? That's funny, real funny. Paul, the town unicycle, now has a girl.' _Quil mocked. _'Who's she?' _He asked, trying to roll himself onto his belly. He was surprisingly calm for a newly phased wolf. But that was Quil, always the amiable one.

_'None of your damn business!' _But I couldn't stop the image of her sweet form lying on Sam's couch from popping up in my head.

_'Bella Swan? Yours? Jake's Bells?'_

_'She's mine, pup. Not his imprint.'_

_'Imprint? Like the third wife kinda thing?'_

_'Don't make me explain this to you. Just keep your hands off her and you'll survive.'_

I had better things to do than to stand around and explain what she's like to me. Right now, I had to find her best friend who could give Houdini a run for his money.

As Quil staggered around trying to get used to balancing with a tail, I asked the pack, _'Has anyone see or heard from Jake? Bella really wants to see him.' _Hoping and praying to the gods that someone had seen the idiot, who was neck deep in shit with the pack.

Embry had picked up the slack from his patrols, but it was clearly evident to anyone who laid eyes on him that he wouldn't be able to function if he pulled another double, without a break. Sam didn't need the extra stress of the council breathing down his neck to find the future chief. Jared was this close to committing if he had to share Kim with Billy one more day. And I, obviously, had my own imprint issues. Now was not the most convenient time for the bastard to just up, and fucking leave this pack. But now that Quil had joined the ranks everything had just moved five notches up on the shit scale.

But all I was met with were negative responses. Right, so I was not in the best position to find the motherfucker and drag his ass to the hospital. But I had to do something. I paced round the pack, who were trying to explain to Quil what it meant to be a wolf, and thought about how the fuck I could go about this. I had already tried to scent the fucker from the hospital but the storm only helped to wash away his scent. Sam had already tried looking for him everywhere we thought he could have been, but luck was not on our side. So I had pretty much no way of finding Jacob! Great, just great.

'_Focus!_' Sam rumbled to the overactive pup.

I snapped out of my thoughts and turned my attention to the images being projected by Quil. Every single one of them was of Jacob and in some of them there was a tall brunette chick with a thick fringe. I had never seen the girl before but she seemed to know Jake every well. We could see her with her hand up the front of Jake's shirt, or stuffed into his back pocket. But I wasn't quite sure if there were old memories or recollection of new encounters.

_'What the fuck is this?'_ I demanded from Quil.

_'Your mother! Who the fuck do you think it is?'_ Was Quil's genius remark.

_'Erm Quil, I don't think you should piss him off...'_ Embry warned as I prowled closer to the smart ass pup.

Quil's eyes snapped back to mine as I backed him up against a tree. A vicious snarl ripped through my wolf and Quil chocolate brown form bowed down to me. I couldn't control the anger that surged from my core or the thoughts that were directed at the newly phased wolf.

_'When did you see him?'_ I asked in a deadly whisper.

_'Yesterday.'_ He whimpered.

'_Where did you see him?'_ Was my next demand.

_'The bookstore in Forks._' He whined as an image of Jake wrapped around the girl popped into our minds.

_'Who was he with?_'

_'I don't know,'_ He cried as I snapped my jaws at the submissive wolf, now I was just being plain mean but he didn't need to know that.

_'Paul! That's enough!'_ Sam commanded shoving me away from Quil with his shoulder. I sighed dejectedly and apologised to Quil because no matter how badly I needed to find Jake I had no right to treat him like I just had. The old Paul would have never given his behaviour two thoughts but now that I had Bella in my life, everything had changed. I had more respect for everyone around me. My feelings for my pack brothers had multiplied and I fucking cared a whole lot more than I used to before her. This, unfortunately, didn't go unnoticed by the pack.

_'Pussy whipped, is what I believe you called me.'_ Sam laughed.

_'Never thought I'd see the day Paul Lahote would apologise voluntarily.'_ Embry wheezed out.

_'Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Does anyone know who she is?'_ I asked the pack, it was clear that Jake had been hanging around this girl when he should've been with Bella. But because I didn't know where Jake was I needed to know who this new girl was if I had any chance of finding him. She was definitely new, I had more or less fucked every girl in and around La Push but I'd never seen her.

_'Her names Sophia!'_ Embry supplied nonchalantly._ 'She works at the new restaurant._' He added as an afterthought with a snapshot of her in a black uniform. Yes! Finally something I can work with!

I could've cried I was so relieved. But instead I settled for just running up to the smaller grey wolf and licking his face, with one impressively slobbery stoke of my tongue. Embry recoiled in disgust rubbing his face into the forest dirt and swiped the pad of his paw up and down his cheek.

_'Ew! Paul, what the fuck is wrong with you man?!'_ Embry screamed out.

'_Quiet!'_ Sam ordered as he stalked towards Jared. _'Why weren't you with Quil?'_ Sam snarled at his cowering beta._ 'You were meant to be keeping an eye on him, Jared!'_ Sam growled.

_'I…I was with Kim.'_ Jared whimpered as he dropped his head to the forest floor, in an act of submission. I knew the Jared had been skipping out on some of his wolf duties to spend time with Kim, I even tried to talk to him about it. But never had I thought that we could have found Jake earlier if he had just stuck to his role. I was torn between feeling sorry for the guy and wanting to rip him a new one.

_'When I designate you to a task, Jared, I expect you to carry out the task. Especially, one as important as making sure a bordering wolf does not harm anyone around them.'_ Sam snapped his teeth into Jared's shoulder. _'Do you think that skipping out on wolf duties is going to protect the people that rely on us?!'_ He roared 'what if Quil had phased near Abigail, what would Kim do then? Reward you for indirectly for hurting her sister or hate you for letting someone she loves get hurt, huh?' Mentioning Kim's sister was a low blow, but he was right. _'There is a time for work, and there is a time to play.'_ Sam's tone took on a betrayed under note._ 'I would have liked to think that imprinting would have taught you how much this role truly means, but I see that that is not the case. I never thought that I would need to discipline my wolves when it came to duties but you have proved me wrong, Jared. I'm extremely disappointed.'_ He sighed dejectedly.

_'I'm sorry Sam but I've not had a moment alone-'_ Jared started but I cut him off form digging himself into a bigger hole.

_'Shut the fuck up!'_ I growled at him 'Don't you get it; this could've all been over yesterday. You could've been with Kim right now if you hadn't been so selfish. Sam would get to breathe soon pressure less air. Embry would've got to sleep for more than two hours last night. And Bella would never had the threat of being sectioned looming over her fucking head.' I scolded my best friend. _'You are so lucky Em knows who this chick is._' I digressed from the conversation rather abruptly to stop myself from doing something that I would later regret; besides I had to find Black. And I had to find him before Bella retreated back into a catatonic state like she had been in for the past four days.

With the mission impossible theme tune running on loop in my head I raced towards the restaurant this chick worked at. It was my only way of ever being able to find the fucker. I ripped through the forest in a desperate bid to get there before the thing opened so I could see if she was working today. Oh god, what was I gonna do if she wasn't working today? I couldn't let Bella down like that not after what Jake had done to her, not after how her father had been letting her down; for Christ sake all the man had to do was look his daughter in the eyes and ask her how she was, but fuck me he wasn't even capable of that. The forest didn't relent in its vast expanse but soon enough I was running parallel to 101, willing my legs to carry me faster for the sake of my imprint and our sanities. I didn't know what would happen to her if she was put into a place where I couldn't get to her when I wanted or protect her from all the crazy people around. But I knew she wasn't crazy; she was a lot of things but crazy was nowhere near the top of the list.

I could see the restaurant in my vision and something else is getting my attention.

"Oh god, Jake, harder!" _Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me right now. _The fucker is getting his jollies off! His best friend, laying in the damn hospital.

And I saw red.

I phased back and put on my shorts, marching over to the motherfucker. I saw him pinning his little girlfriend against the tree, her legs wrapped around him. As he thrust faster into her, I could smell that she was close to cumming. _Sorry sweetheart, but not today._

My hand grabbed the back of Jacob's neck and I slammed him against the ground. The girl fell to the ground, yelping and groaning in sexual frustration.

"What the fuck, Paul!" Jacob shouted, as he got to his feet. Rapidly, he put his shorts on and thank the high heavens for that! He tried to get back to the girl, but I blocked his path.

I pushed him back to the ground and he fell backwards. I stared at the girl, "You better leave right now before this gets ugly."

The girl stared at me then back to Jake, like she didn't know what to do. I wasn't in the mood for this! I needed this dumbass for Bella! "Go, now!" I shouted at her. She grabbed her clothes off the ground and ran away.

Purely fueled by rage, I took ahold of Jacob's neck wrung him. He was a good three inches off the ground before I clenched my teeth.

"You listen to me, you fucker. I don't care who she is or what she is to you, but you are coming back with me to see Bella." I dropped him to the ground, and he fell to his knees. He stared up at me.

"Why should I care? I mean, she is _your _imprint, right?" He asked, as he got back up on his feet.

"Yeah, she is. I thought you were her best friend. They want to put her in the psychiatric ward because she won't talk or eat anymore. And you know what she wanted all along?" I challenged him, a sly smirk on my face.

"What?" He asked, frowning.

"You. And you weren't there. Because of you, she's nothing talk or eatting." I growled.

He took a steady, deep breath, a look of frustration and guilt on his face.

"I'll go for for Bells. But, if you ever do that to my _imprint _again, I will kill you." He threatened me, walking ahead.

"What I did to your damn imprint," _This was also a surprise to me, him having an imprint. God, who knew? _"isn't anything close to what you unknowingly did to mine. She could have died because of you."

Jacob turned around, a glint of sadness in his eyes.

"Let's just go." He muttered, defeated.

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


	16. Chapter 15

As we ran to the hospital, I kept thinking about Bella. I knew she would try to keep her word, but in the mindset that she was in, I'm not sure if that's possible. I stared at the sun, it was setting.

_'Move it, Black. I don't want to let her down.'_ I said, and I felt the waves of sadness roll of him. I was sort of happy that he felt like shit for doing this to Bella. Maybe he will understand how she feels when she needed him but was nowhere to be found.

Black kept following me the entire time, thinking about his imprint. There were only two reasons why he would be thinking about her this much. One, he could be doing this to annoying to fuck out of me or he's using her as an excuse to hide what's really on his mind.

If there's one thing I always do right, is that I can bug the hell out of my pack brothers to manipulate them.

_'Hey Black, Sophia has a great body, doesn't she?'_ I could feel his growing anger, but he kept hiding his real thoughts behind images of Sophia_. 'Yeah, if I didn't imprint on Bella, I'd totally go after her.'_

_'Fuck off, Paul! I know what you're trying to do!' _He yelled at me, and I laughed in response. It was so easy to push his damn button. This was more of a payback than trying to find out what he was hiding.

_'Yeah? Exactly what am I doing, Black?' _I challenged.

He stopped in his tracks and I did the same, turning around to face him. _'You're still pissed because of what happened to Bella and because I wasn't there, so that makes me an easy target to lash out on!"_

I walked up to him, my muzzle an inch away from his muzzle. My dark eyes pierced into his_. 'Tell me, Jacob, who should I lash out on? The leech? I think we both know I already did.' He tilted his head so that our eyes didn't meet. 'Tell me, Black, who should I take it out on? I think it's alright for me to lash out on the guy who fucked up!'_

Jacob growled and barred his teeth at me.

_'Fight me, Black.'_ I challenged. He's too much of a wuss to take me on anyway.

_'I'm not going to fight you.'_ He sneered. Hah, I knew it. _'I know what happened to Bella was partly my fault, but you keep playing her. One minute you don't want anything to do with her and the next you need her!'_

_'Don't try to turn this one on me. I've been there for her. I was by her side when you weren't. I watched her sit on that damn hospital bed for days, refusing to eat, drink or sleep.'_ I flashed images of Bella's mentally dead body. She looked tired, malnourished and thin.

_'Stop!'_ Jacob begged. He looked at me, pleadingly and let out a small cry. _'I'm sorry but meeting Sophia was like nothing else mattered anymore. I don't know how you can manage to stay away from Bella like you did.'_

I snorted_. 'Harder than you think. My wolf kept shouting at me to go see her. I don't care that I wasn't near her as much as I should have, the point is now I'm going to actually be there when she needs me.'_

Jacob nodded. _'I really hope you mean that, Paul, because when she finds out about Sophia, I don't know if she will not like that at all.'_

I peered over my shoulder and noticed the sun was disappearing quickly. _'Shit, let's get a move on.'_

We ran as fast as ever. The damn Mission Impossible theme repeatedly played in the back of my mind. As we got closer to the hospital, it smelled of illness, bad food and a whole tone of chemicals. We reached the end of the woody area in time to see Jared coming out of the same area with bags in his hands.

I phased back quickly and ran up to him. He threw a bag at me that contained clothing. I looked at him."How did you know?" I asked, taking the clothes and putting them on.

Jared tossed the other bag at Jacob. "I knew where to find you dumbasses. Don't think I know what's going on in your heads?"

I slipped the shoes on. "How's Quil?"

Jacob's head shot to us in curiosity. "What happened to Quil?"

"While you were fucking your precious little girl, he phased." I hissed at him. You bet I'm still mad at the fucker.

"He's fine now." Jared interjected. "He realized when he phases back, he'll still have a dick." Jared howled with laughter. "Well, you two better get running because it's five minutes until seven and they won't let you in after that."

Without a second to waste, I walked through the hospital doors. I couldn't let Bella down anymore. It seemed like everyone did that to her nowadays.

As we reached the front desk, the nurse stared at us apologetically. I ignored her stare and went to the hallway. "I'm sorry, but it's passed seven. You'll have to come back tomorrow." She told us.

"Please, Miss, we need to see a patient. Can you please let us have five minutes? I gave her my word that I would come back."

The nurse looked from me to Jacob before sighing, nodding her head and directing us to Bella's room. "Thank you." I called to her.

As we walked into Bella's room, Bella looked spacy. There was a plate of food on the bedside table. She had a few bites from it, but the majority of it still seemed to be sitting on the paper plate.

I sat down next to her. "Hey, Bella, look who I brought."

She turned her head and saw Jacob, and her eyes lit up. "Jacob." She murmured, trying to sit up. I don't know why, but I felt a surge of anger go through me. I was...I was jealous.

"Hey, Bells." Jacob greeted her and sat on the other side of her bed. "How are you?"

Her small smile faded quickly, revealing the empty-eyed, spacy Bella that was here two minutes ago. In a small voice, she asked, "Where were you?"

I stared at Jacob, angrily. Yeah, Jacob, tell her where you were. I could see his Adam's apple bob, as he tried to swallow past the lump in his throat. It was obvious to see that Jacob felt guilty.

Bella stared at him, wide-eyed and expectant. I knew that if Bella ever gave me that look, I would melt into her arms. Jacob, nervously, rubbed the back of his neck.

"Bella, I'm sorry I wasn't here..."As Jacob started apologizing, Bella interrupted him.

"Where were you, Jacob?" She asked, more forcefully and I could see the ever-growing anger in her eyes. Somehow, I think she knew what was really going on with him.

"I imprinted, Bella, it just happened." Jacob blurted.

"Imprinted? And you didn't even care if I was alive or dead?"

Whoa, that was the longest sentence I've heard from her since she got here.

"Bells, please..."

Bella shook her head, and I could see the hidden strength bubbling to the surface.

"No, Jacob. I put my life on the line for you. And because you found your lover, you forget about me? What if it was your dad in here? I bet you feel terrible, don't you? Think about how shitty you will feel if your dad was in my position." She sneered, and I felt pride.

Jacob took in a deep breath. "Bella, I know what I did wasn't right, but I'm not going to say sorry that I'm for picking my imprint over you."

As the words spilled from his mouth, I observed her face and it was heartbreaking. At the same moment, Jacob realized what he had just said.

"Shit, Bella, I'm so-"

"Get out." Bella demanded, her voice breaking. Jacob looked at me like he didn't know what to do. He was bound to slip up sometime. "Get out and go see your stupid imprint. She means more to you in a couple of days than I have been in your entire life, right? Is that how it works for you? Just get the fuck out."

Jacob's fists were balled up and he stared at me longingly before leaving. I glanced at Bella, who was now staring at the window.

"Wasn't that a little harsh?" I asked, and she turned her head towards me. I put my hands up as if I were being arrested. "I mean, I'm not his biggest fan either, but you were a bit harsh."

Bella let out the most sad, broken laugh I've ever heard. "Out of everyone in the world, I wouldn't have expected you to stand up for Jacob Black."

"Well, I guess it's not all his fault." I defended my pack brother. "Imprinting messes with your head really badly, trust me."

Bella frowned. "How would you know that?" Shit. Shit shit shit.

**_Tell her now. My wolf demanded. Tell her that she's ours. She belongs with us._**

_This isn't the right time_, though. There was too much happening right now. I need to be her friend first and show her that I'm not that big of an asshole.

" I just have roots into their thoughts."

She nodded once. "You know, I'm not mad at him because he imprinted on someone. I'm just sad that he moved on so quickly, like...like Edward did."

"He didn't dump you, Bella. He just needed to adjust to everything first. Just give him some time and he will be back to the old best friend you know. But until then, just count on me to be here for you, okay?" I smiled at her and surprisingly, she smiled back. "Well, I better go. I told the nurse I would only be here for five minutes and its way over that."

As I made my way to the door, I heard her whisper what sounded like a, "No." I turned around.

"Can you please stay?" She begged, her big, brown eyes practically luring me in.

Fighting all urges to run to her and hold her in my arms, I nodded once and went to her bedside, sitting in the empty chair next to her bed. She put my hand on mine and smile, Well it a start.

**Hey my little readers,**

** A lot of you been asking why the first pager don't fit in with the story. Well it's working up to that point. When it get to that point you all going to going crazy the idea of this story is really good and I hope I can do the best I can with it. **

**Other thing I want to say. I know I'm not updated fast like people would want me to but I do have a life outside of writing and my Beat dose to but I'm going to try updated three time a month. **

**Let me know what you think and need a lot comments =) **

**Edited and Beta'd by: Moriarty's Diary**


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